
Glass_t_lJa51 
Book 1 ^ 3 (0 




CHARLES H. BETTS 



THE NAKED TRUTH 

Vital Issues Before the Country 
Clearly Analyzed and Discussed 



The Mask Stripped from Dema- 
gogues and the Facts Revealed — 
The Heart and Brain of Humbug 
Pierced by the Sword of Truth 



Speech Delivered at Clyde, N. Y., 
November 2, 1912 



BY 

CHARLES H. BETTS 

Editor of The Lyons Republican 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE LYONS RKPL BLICAN COMPANY 

LYONS^ N. Y. 






Copyright, 1913, 

by 

The Lyons Republican Company 



By Transfer 

JUL 31 .ii24 



^ 



j^ 



CURE FOR ROOSEVELTITIS 

(Ontario County Journal, Canandaigua, N. Y.) 

The thought, in January, of a series of articles* 
on "The Nahed Truth" almost makes one shiver, 
hut if reading the series in which Charles E. 
Belts, of The Lyons Republican, disrobes his for- 
mer friend Col. Roosevelt, one will need a fan 
rather than a heater. Mr. Belts has gone deeper 
into the by-ways and side-passages of Col. Roose- 
velt's inconsistencies than any other writer who 
has essayed the task. He is thorough and one 
must be convinced that he is truthful. But to us 
the most amazing, if not pathetic, feature of 
Roosevelt's recent public life has been the unshaTc- 
ability of the faith of his followers in his sincerity. 
Brother Betts' naked truth taken three times a day 
before meals is our final prescription for hopeless 
cases of Rooseveltitis. 



♦This speech was printed in The Lyons Republican, running in sev- 
eral issues. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Votes for Women 9 

Present Discontent 9 

Chicago Contests 13 

Washington Times Quoted 14 

Colonel Roosevelt Quoted 15 

New York Times Quoted 16 

Committee's Vote on Contests 18 

The Texas Case 20 

The Indiana Case 21 

New York World Quoted 22 

Philadelphia Inquirer Quoted 23 

The Washington Case 24 

The California Case 25 

The California Electors 29 

Clark and Roosevelt 31 

Roosevelt's Pledge 32 

Canadian Reciprocity 35 

The Tariff 39 

The Farmer and the Tariff 45 

Protection and the Workingman 47 

Roosevelt and the Trusts 51 

Roosevelt's Campaign Contributors 54 

A Crooked Primary 61 

An Attempt to Bribe a Delegate 63 

Roosevelt as a Progressive 65 

Taft as a Progressive 69 

Woodrow Wilson 71 

Job E. Hedges 71 

William Sulzer 71 

Oscar S. Straus 72 

The Republican Party 75 

Representative Government 77 

The Constitution 85 



INTRODUCTION 

This address, entitled THE NAKED TEUTH, was delivered 
by Charles H. Betts, editor of The Lyons Republican, at Clyde, 
N. Y., Saturday evening, November 2d, 1912. 

The address has been revised, corrected and extended and 
printed in this form at the request of many friends who read the 
instalments of the speech as printed in The Lyons Republican and 
who wrote the editor requesting him to print the address in a book 
so that it could be obtained by the public in a more permanent 
form. 

In compliance with these requests this little book is presented 
to the public believing that it contains needed information relative 
to the vital issues which are now prominently before the country. 

I believe that the people are honest, intelligent and patriotic 
and that they want to know the exact truth about all public men 
and public questions. The best time to present such truths to the 
people is when they are normal, when they are not excited in a 
political campaign and when passion and prejudice has subsided 
and reason, common sense and justice has assumed authority over 
the public mind. 

CHARLES H. BETTS. 
Lyons, N. Y., February 1, 1913 



THE NAKED TRUTH 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

I am pleased to see so many ladies here tonight. I am glad to 
see the women take an interest in politics and public affairs, be- 
cause it will not be long before they will enjoy with men political 
equality. 

One of the main arguments advanced against extending the 
franchise to women is the one to the effect that because women can- 
not shoulder a musket and go to war, therefore they should not be 
given the ballot. It has occurred to me that it is quite as important 
to supply a soldier as to be one. It has occurred to me that if it 
were not for the women there would be no soldiers. It has occurred 
to me that every hero and every soldier who has ever stood in the 
line of battle was his mother^s substitute. 

We men have always prided ourselves upon the fact that man 
was created first and woman afterwards. I for one am mighty 
glad that Adam had a rib to spare. Let us admit that man was 
God's first thought and that woman was God's second thought, but 
let us also be candid and manly enough to admit that second 
thoughts are always the best. 

We are living in a very large world, which is filled to over- 
flowing with all kinds of conflicting theories and it is no easy 
task for any man to pick out the true from the false, the sound 
from the unsound. It requires patient study and investigation. 
There is, however, one thing of which we can all be assured and 
that is no one man has a corner on either wisdom or virtue. There 
is no monopoly in the republic of ideas — no trust in the world of 

°^°^^^^* The Present Discontent. 

We have a flock of demagogues in this country who are going 
from place to place preaching the doctrine of discontent. The man 
who goes up and down the country preaching this doctrine and 
fanning the flames of passion, prejudice and class hatred and 
endeavoring to make the people dissatisfied with their lot in life, 
is not the friend of the people, but he is the enemy of his country 
and the foe of mankind. 

9 



10 THE NAKED TRUTH 

Herbert Spencer says the more we improve our condition, the 
more discontented we become. He was a great philosopher and 
thought deeply and reflected sanely, a rare thing in these hysterical 
days, and he says that this is so, not only with the individual, but 
with incorporated humanity. A moment's consideration of the 
subject will clearly show that it is true. 

The more we improve our condition, the more we prosper; the 
more we educate ourselves, the more cultured we become; the more 
we refine our tastes, the l)etter things we want, and the more they 
cost. By constantly improving our condition, broadening our 
views, educating and civilizing ourselves, we advance to the point 
where our wants and needs multiply, our tastes and appetites 
become more exacting, and we require more and better things to 
satisfy them. From the organ we advance to the piano, and from 
the carriage to the automobile. 

It sometimes happens with some of us and, indeed, with most 
of us, that our new wants and needs multiply faster than our 
incomes and this makes us discontented. But this discontent is 
not an evidence of our distress. It is an evidence of our improve- 
ment. We are not distressed, we are prosperous, we are advancing^ 
and our discontent is an evidence of our progress and is the spur to 
further advancement. 

No demagogue ever told you this. The reason is he wants 
your votes. He wants to capitalize your discontent and so he 
wants to create the thing that he wants to capitalize. He wants to 
make you believe that you are distressed. He wants to create in 
your minds dissatisfaction and discontent so that he can make you 
believe that the only way to obtain relief is to elect him to a public 
office. This is the aim of the office-seeking demagogue and it is 
time tliat you awakened to the situation. 

One reason that these demagogues do not tell you the truth is 
because they want your votes and they are ready to tell you any- 
thing to obtain them. Another reason is the most of them do not 
know. They are ignorant of philosophy and statesmanship. They 
are so busy trying to obtain a public office that they have no time 
to study either philosophy or statesmanship. They read only the 
yellow journals and muck-raking magazines, including The Out- 
look. 

They read these periodicals until their minds are filled with 



THE NAKED TRUTH 11 

undigested and indigestible "trash" and they finally become 
afflicted with that fatal malady known as mental dyspepsia. They 
are sick and they think that you are sick and so they proceed to 
prescribe for you political quack remedies from their own dis- 
ordered minds. 

The old Latin philosopher, Boethius, had this kind of political 
quack doctors in mind when he said: 

These are they who stifle the fruit-bearing harvest of 
reason with the barren briars of the passions; they free 
not the minds of men from disease, but accustom them 
thereto. 

Despite the gloomy pictures painted by these noisy dema- 
gogues relative to your condition, you are not sick, you are well 
and prosperous. We are the most healthy, the most normal, the 
most moral, the most intelligent, the most civilized, the most 
prosperous, contented and happy people the sun has ever shone 
upon, and we have reached our highest stage of industrial develop- 
ment and material prosperity and our highest degree of content- 
ment and happiness under the magnificent administration of that 
patient patriot and broad-minded statesman, William Howard Taft. 



THE CHICAGO CONTESTS 

I wish to invite your attention for a few moments to a vital 
issue in this campaign. It is a vital issue because upon the false 
charge that Col. Eoosevelt was unfairly beaten out of the regular 
Eepublican nomination for president and that the delegates were 
stolen for President Taf t, is based the whole third party movement. 
Wipe out this false charge and there does not exist the slightest 
excuse for the creation of the third party movement, because Col. 
Eoosevelt himself was a Eepublican and tried to get the regular 
Eepublican noniination at Chicago and he remained a Eepublican 
up to the time he was rejected by the convention. 

He went into the convention as a candidate, his delegates went 
into the convention and became a part of the convention and took 
part in its deliberations, and he was a candidate and was voted for 
in the convention after the present platform was adopted, and there- 
fore he did not leave the convention on account of the platform, or 
on account of anything except the fact that he was not nominated 
himself, and the only reason he gives for not being nominated is 
that the delegates were stolen from him. This is a false charge and 
when this charge is proved to be false, there does not exist the 
slightest excuse for Mr. Eoosevelt leaving the convention and creat- 
ing a third party, and when he did so he became an ordinary bolter 
and apostate. 

I propose to prove to you and prove it by Col. Eoosevelfs own 
witnesses that the delegates were not stolen for President Taft, and 
Col. Eoosevelt knows it Just as well as I do. In the first place, on his 
own showing, on his own claim of delegates, he never had delegates 
enough to be nominated himself. If Taft had not been nominated 
Eoosevelt could not have been nominated either, because he never 
had, allowing him everything he claimed, enough delegates to con- 
trol the convention and nominate himself. No man could be un- 
fairly beaten out of that which he never had an opportunity to 
obtain. Therefore, the only question is, was Taft honestly nom- 
inated ? 

I wish to call your attention to the fact that Col. Eoosevelt 
entered the field openly as a candidate for president some time after 

13 



14 THE NAKED TRUTH 

President Taf t had expressed his willingness to accept a renomina- 
tion and many conventions had already been held, especially in the 
southern states. These conventions were held before Mr. Roosevelt 
openly entered the field, although he had been secretly plotting for 
the nomination since his return from Europe. Some one hundred 
and fifty delegates had already been elected, mostly in southern 
states, when he entered the field, and he and his friends thought 
something must be done to deceive the people into the belief that 
he had a chance to be nominated, and so they sent agents into the 
southern states to put up fake and fraudulent contests against the 
Taft delegates which had already been elected. 

This I will prove by Col. Roosevelt's own witnesses or rather 
his own backers. Mr. Frank A. Munsey, one of the leading financial 
backers and most influential supporters of Col. Roosevelt, is editor 
and proprietor of the Washington Times. Wlien tlie national Re- 
publican committee met in Chicago to hear the contested cases and 
when the cases were presented before that committee, and day after 
day the fraudulent and trumped up contests instituted by Col. 
Roosevelt's friends were being thrown out and the Taft delegates 
were being seated, Mr. Munsey thought it was necessary to make some 
sort of an explanation of the situation, and so in the Washington 
Times of June 9, 1912, we find this statement: 

When the national committee met in Washington last 
December there were persistent rumors that Roosevelt 
might be a candidate. LaFollette was already in the 
field. * * * When Senator Dixon took charge of the 
campaign a tabulated showing of delegates selected to date 
would have looked hopelessly one sided. Moreover, a num- 
ber of southern states had called their conventions for 
early dates and there was no chance to develop the real 
Roosevelt strength in the great northern states until later. 
For psychological effect, as a move in practical politics, 
it was necessary for the Roosevelt people to start contests 
on these early Taft selections in order that a tabulation of 
delegate strength could be put out that would show Roose- 
velt holding a good hand in the game. A table showing 
"Taft, 150; Roosevelt, 19; Contested, 0;" would not be very 
much calculated to inspire confidence, whereas, one show- 
ing "Taft, 23; Roosevelt, 19; Contested, 127," looked very 
different. 

That is the whole story of the large number of south- 
ern contests that were started early in the game. It was 



THE NAKED TRUTH 15 

never expected that they would be taken very seriously. 
They served a useful purpose and now the national com- 
mittee is deciding them in favor of Taft, in most cases 
without real division. — Washington Times, June 9, 1912. 

Let me call your attention to the statement that for "psy- 
chological effect," and "as a move in practical politics," it was 
necessary to bring these contests "for a purpose," as stated by Mr. 
Munsey's paper. And what was the purpose ? To deceive and mis- 
lead the people ; to practice a fraud upon the public ; to make the 
people believe that Eoosevelt had more delegates than he did have 
and that Taft did not have as many delegates as he had. This was 
the purpose! The whole candidacy of Eoosevelt started here with 
fraudulent, trumped up, dishonest contests, for the express purpose 
of practicing a fraud upon the public, and then they talk about 
honesty and morality. Ye Gods, what a spectacle ! 

Let me call your attention to another witness. I will now put 
on the stand Col. Theodore Eoosevelt himself. When the national 
committee was hearing these contests and the Alabama case was dis- 
posed of and the reporters informed Col. Eoosevelt of the result, 
he gave out an interview which was published in his partisan organ, 
the Chicago Tribune, on June 8, 1912, and this is what the Chicago 
Tribune says: 

The Colonel showed the reporters a table of delegates 
he expected to be awarded on the Alabama list. It was 
shown that he had conceded 22 to President Taft and 
claimed only 2 for himself. "You see, I had not counted on 
anything except that one district," he said. — Chicago 
Tribune, June 8, 1912. 

I want to ask any intelligent, honest, fair-minded man this 
question : "If Eoosevelt knew that only two delegates had been 
elected for him in Alabama why did he start 16 contests in that 
state?" Does he not in this statement admit that he started at 
least 14 fraudulent contests, knowing that he had no right to the 
delegates? He was simply trying to steal delegates by putting up a 
bluff and contesting Taft delegates which he knew were regularly 
and legally elected. 

Does an honest man try to thus cheat his rival? Does an 
honest man put up fraudulent contests? And when he does so 
should his word be accepted by honest and intelligent people when 
he charges somebody else with committing the very fraud he tried 



16 THE NAKED TEUTH 

to commit? It is an old game to cry, "Stop, thief !" when you have 
the stolon goods in your hands or when you are trying to get them. 
This criminal practice is as old as larceny. 

I wish to invite your attention to an editorial in the New Yorh 
Times, one of the independent newspapers of this country, of high 
standing and influence and a newspaper that is supporting Gov. 
Wilson, the Democratic candidate for president. This paper can- 
not be charged with being a partisan of President Taft. I have 
already quoted how Munsey's paper admits that the Eoosevelt con- 
tests were trumped up, fraudulent contests. I have also quoted Col. 
Eoosevelt as admitting the same thing and now I want to put in 
evidence the editorial from the New York Times, printed two days 
after Mr. Eoosevelt's admission and one day after Mr. Munse/s 
admission. 

On June 10, 1912, in a leading editorial, the New York Times 
said: 

UNSCRUPULOUS AND INCOMPETENT. 

The hearings of the contest cases before the Repub- 
lican National Committee disclose unmistakably a plot to 
buy the Presidency for Theodore Roosevelt. It has failed 
because of the utter incapacity of his miserable agents. 
Had their skill been equal to their, and his, unprincipled 
audacity, if instead of being wretched palterers in chicane 
and corruption they had been competent in crime, men 
thoroughly schooled in the higher branches of political 
villiany, the picture now presented to the eyes of the 
Nation in Chicago might have been very different. Mr. 
Roosevelt's buyers and herders of delegates and his or- 
ganizers of contests were ill-chosen for their tasks. His 
contests fail, every one of them, and they are seen to be 
based on such brazen impostures that even his own 
friends and supporters in the committee are unable to 
conceal their weariness and disgust. 

But the plot stands revealed. While Mr. Roosevelt 
was raising his audiences in the North to the pitch of 
frenzy, the silent workers in the South, with ample means 
for their campaign of conveying and converting, were 
everywhere astir. The crowd around the soap box in New 
Jersey yelled, the needy colored brother in Alabama or in 
Florida advanced to the proffered, well filled hand, and 
they called it a Nation in revolt against the bosses. But 
while the consenting beneficiary of these dirty doings com- 
placently receives at Oyster Bay professors of social up- 



THE XAKED TRUTH 17 

lift come to consult him about good works, the winnowers 
are at work in Ctiicago and the chaff his fuglemen h.ave 
brought to the mill is scattered down the wind. 

The intention and design to buy the presidency have 
been made clear. It is but too clear, also that had the 
plot succeeded, the chief person in interest would have 
taken the purchased nomination without a scruple. Is he 
not now prating about "theft" as he sees property upon 
wliich he had laid lawless hand confirmed to its rightful 
owner? But failure in crime does not exculpate. Intent 
is the essence in this case, and that is proved in the 
sight of all men. The adaptation of the means to the end 
was never more ludicrously miscalculated, but that is not 
even a palliation. It only adds contempt to reprobation. 
The country lias never before seen a foray upon the Presi- 
dency undertaken with such unscrupulousness and such 
incapacity. Is it too much to hope that the amazing re- 
velation may give some at least of the poor befooled 
people in revolt a truer view of the character of their 
great deliverer? — New York Times, June 10, 1912. 

Is it not remarkable that Mr. Munsey, Col. Eoosevelt and the 
New York Times all agree so perfectly upon the fact that Col. 
Roosevelt's candidacy was based upon faked and fraudulent con- 
tests? The editorial in the New York Times simply elaborates 
and confirms the testimony of Mr. Munsey and Col. Roosevelt 
upon this point. It vrill be observed that the editorial in the 
Times eight days before the Republican National Convention con- 
vened, speaking of Roosevelt, said : 

Is he not now prating about "Theft" as he sees pro- 
perty upon which he had laid lawless hands confirmed 
to its rightful owner? But failure in crime does not ex- 
culpate. Intent is the essence in this case, and that is 
proved in the sight of all men. 

A fine start for a moral crusader? A splendid moral equip- 
ment for the champion of "social justice." 

Permit me right here to call your attention to the fact that 
Ormsbey McHarg, who had charge of the preparation of the 
Eoosevelt contests at Chicago, and Gov. Hadley, who led the fight 
for the contesting delegations in the convention for Roosevelt, and 
Gov. Dineen, who was one of Roosevelfs most prominent leaders 
at the Chicago convention, all of whom were in position to know the 
inside facts relative to all of these contests, after the convention 



18 THE NAKED TRUTH 

was over refused to follow Eoosevelt on his false charge of "stolen 
delegates" and they all came out for President Taft and are now 
supporting him for re-election. 

Is this not a significant fact? Are these Roosevelt leaders 
all "crooks" and "liars" and "robbers" too? If so, Eoosevelt dis- 
played mighty poor judgment in selecting them to conduct his 
fight at Chicago. If his judgment is so at fault, should he ask the 
American people to trust it any longer? Is it not a fair presump- 
tion that these men are all intelligent, honest and patriotic men, 
and being in a position to know the inside facts better than anyone 
else, better than Roosevelt himself, and realizing the fake and 
fraudulent nature of the Roosevelt contests, they refused to follow 
him out of the Republican party on the false charge that the dele- 
gates were stolen for President Taft? Has not this significant 
fact ever penetrated your minds, my good misguided Bull Moose 
friends ? 

Let me call your attention to the fact that 164 of the contests 
brought by Roosevelt were tlirown out unanimously by the national 
committee. Roosevelt's friends brought 238 contests. Out of this 
number 164 of them were thrown out unanimously and only 72 
were considered seriously even by Mr. Roosevelt's friends, and 
Governor Dineen has since stated that Roosevelt admitted that only 
32 had any merit and that he asked him (Dineen) to draw a reso- 
lution including only 32 as contested delegates. 

However that may be, the fact remains that out of these 72 
contests 64 were decided either unanimously or by a viva voce vote 
by the national committee and only 9 had sufficient support by 
Roosevelt's friends to insure a roll call. And let me say right here 
that every member of this committee was a friend of Roosevelt, 
having been elected at the 1908 Republican Convention, which he 
controlled absolutely. The record of the committee's action is 
interesting. It is as follows: 

Alabama— 16 contested, 14 Taft, no roll call. 2 Taft, by a vote 
of 38 to 15. 

Arizona — 6 contested, no roll call. All Taft. 

Arkansas— 16 contested. 12 Taft, no roll call. 2 Taft, by a vote 
of 49 to 2. 2 Taft, by a vote of 42 to 10. 

California— 2 contested. Both Taft; by a vote of 37 to 16. 

Florida— 12 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Georgia — 28 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 



THE NAKED TRUTH 19 

Indiana — 12 contested. 10 Taft, no roll call. 2 Taft, by a vote 
of 36 to 14. 

Kentucky — 18 contested. 8 Taft, no roll call. 4 Taft, by a vote 
of 38 to 11. 2 Taft, by a vote of 38 to 13. 2 Taft, by a vote of 35 to 
17. Compromise Taft 1 and Roosevelt 1. 

Louisiana — 20 contested. 14 Taft, no roll call. 6 Taft, by a vote 
of 50 to 2. 

Michigan — 6 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Mississippi — 18 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Missouri — 18 contested. 10 Taft. No roll call. 8 Roosevelt. No 
roll call. 

North Carolina — 6 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Oklahoma — 2 contested. No roll call. Both Taft. 

South Carolina — 2 contested. No roll call. Both Taft. 

Tennessee — 8 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Texas— 30 contested. 26 Taft. No roll call. 4 Roosevelt. No roll 
call. 

Virginia — 20 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

Washington — 14 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

District Columbia — 2 contested. No roll call. All Taft. 

The above record reveals in startling outlines the fake and 
fraudulent nature of the contests brought by Col. Eoosevelt and 
his friends, and the record of the vote of the committee confirms 
the statements of Munsey in his paper, the statements of Roosevelt 
in the Chicago Tribune and the statements made in the editorial 
in the New York Times all above quoted. Let me also remind you 
that all of these committeemen not only were elected as the friends 
of Roosevelt at the 1908 convention but the committee tried out 
everyone of these contests under and in accordance with the rules 
and regulations adopted by that Eoosevelt convention. 

I wish to call your attention for just a very few moments to the 
four cases which you have heard the most about relative to these 
contests and these are the cases of Texas, Indiana, Washington and 
California. I will discuss them briefly, but will endeavor to make 
the real situation clear to your minds. 

At this point in the discussion of this subject I want to say 
that I deeply regret that the harsh epithets "thief !" "robber !" and 
"pickpocket" have been injected into this campaign, but inasmuch 
as they have all been injected into it by the "inspired" leader of the 
Bull Moose party, in order to meet his charges I will be compelled 
to refer to them more or less, but I hope to be able to do so in 
language so delicate and refined that I will not in any way infringe 



20 THE XAKED TRUTH 

upon the exclusive patent of Colonel Eoosevelt to the use of these 
epithets in his characteristically coarse and brutal style. 

THE TEXAS CASE. 

I will first take up the case of Texas. There are 245 counties 
in the state of Texas. In 146 counties there is a Eepublican party. 
There is a Republican organization and Republican primaries were 
held and Republican delegates were elected to the State Convention. 
Of these delegates Mr. Taff s friends had 90 and Mr. Eoosevelf s 
friends had 62, giving Taff a friends a clear majority of the conven- 
tion. 

In 99 counties in the State of Texas there is no Republican 
party ; there were no Republican primaries held and no Republican 
delegates were elected. But one man, Mr. Cecil Lyon, the national 
committeeman, who is a Roosevelt man and who believes in the 
sacred right of the people to rule, obtained proxies from individual 
federal office holders in these 99 counties. He wrote to a post- 
master and asked him to give him his proxy for the county in which 
he resided; he wrote to another federal ofiice holder and told him 
to give him his proxy for the county in which he resided, and so 
armed with these proxies, purely paper proxies, from these 99 
counties where there is no Republican party, where there is no Re- 
publican organization, where no Republican primaries were held 
and where no Republican delegates were elected, Mr. Lyon went 
to the Texas State convention and with these paper proxies from 
99 counties, undertook to control that state convention and elect the 
delegates to the national convention and the result was there were 
two conventions, as the regular Republican delegates would not 
submit to such a proposition. 

When the case came up before the national Republican com- 
mittee, that committee took the position that the regularly elected 
Republican delegates in the State of Texas should control the state 
convention and elect the delegates to the national convention and 
that such delegates should be seated. 

The credentials committee took the same position and the 
Republican national convention endorsed the decision of both the 
national committee and the credentials committee and from the 
decision of the national Republican convention there is no appeal. 

There is not an honest, fair-minded, intelligent citizen in this 



THE NAKED TRUTH 21 

country who can deny the fact that this case was decided upon 
right, justice and equity and that any other decision would have 
been an outrage upon the Republicans of Texas. 

THE INDIANA CASE. 

You will all remember when the Indiana State Convention was 
held to elect delegates to the national convention that the conven- 
tion was controlled by President Taf t's friends and the delegates at 
large were elected for the president. 

Col. Roosevelt the next morning filled the first page of all the 
daily newspapers in the country with one of his characteristic, 
scathing denunciations of the Republicans of Indiana, declaring 
they had "robbed" him of the delegates at large; that the Taft 
delegates were "stolen," that the will of the people had been sup- 
pressed and that he had been "cheated" out of the delegates from 
that state. 

This statement of Col. Roosevelt's was published all over the 
country and hundreds of thousands of innocent people who had 
reason to have confidence in the former President's integrity and 
reliability believed the story to be true. What was the result? 
When this contest came up before the national Republican com- 
mittee and the evidence was presented and all the facts brought out, 
the committee unanimously decided in favor of seating the Taft 
delegates. 

The control of the state convention hinged upon the vote in 
Marion county, in which the city of Indianapolis is located. They 
had a direct primary there and President Taft's friends carried 
the primary with a vote for Taft of 6,163, Roosevelt had only 
1,480 votes. Roosevelt and his friends charged that there was 
fraud in the primary, but when the vote was taken by the national 
committee on this contest, both Senator Borah, one of Roosevelf s 
leaders at the Chicago Convention, and Frank B. Kellogg, the 
former Attorney General in his cabinet, voted to seat the Taft dele- 
gates and in doing so they explained their vote by declaring that 
there was not the slightest evidence of fraud. 

The decision of the conunittee was unanimous. The state- 
ments which Col. Roosevelt sent out in the newspapers all over the 
country were declared by both President Taft's friends and by 
Roosevelt's friends on the committee, to be false by a unanimous 



23 THE NAKED TRUTH 

vote of that committee, and thereby they stamped this charge as a 
slander on the Republicans of Indiana. 

It may be that Col. Roosevelt was deceived into believing that 
he was ''robbed;" it may be that he was misinformed. Jjct lis be 
charitable enough to believe that he was, but when he found out 
that his charge was false, that it was untrue, that it was a slander 
upon the Republicans of Indiana, if he were the honest man I once 
thought him to be, he would have announced to the public that he 
was mistaken in the charge, that it was a false charge, and if he 
were an honest man he would have recalled that slanderous state- 
ment with which he had deceived, misinformed and misled so many 
of his fellow countrj'men. 

This is a fair sample of the reckless, false and unreliable 
charges which have continually issued from Col. Roosevelt's lips. 
The people have been deceived, misled and "buncoed," and he and 
his friends, by the use of a newspaper bureau financed by the trusts, 
and by disappointed office seeking millionaires, have constantly been 
practicing a fraud upon the public. 

In confirmation of this statement I wish to put into evidence 
an extract from a leading editorial in the New York World, 
printed July 29, 1912. It is as follows: 

"STOLEN" DELEGATES. 

By publishing a summary of the evidence in the 
contests before the Chicago Convention the Taft people 
furnish a convincing answer to Mr. Roosevelt's charge 
that he was deprived of the Republican nomination by 
theft. The facts are against him, but he is not making 
his campaign on facts. 

The third-term candidate has so often and so 
violently accused his opponents of dishonesty as to 
arouse sympathy for himself as the innocent victim of 
bare-faced frauds. In a recent article in The Outlook 
on the Chicago convention Mr. Roosevelt used the words 
"fraud," "theft," "dishonesty" and "stealing" over fifty 
times in describing the action of the majority. His 
methods have been shrewdly calculated to prejudice the 
public mind against Mr. Taft, and to some extent they 
have produced the effect intended. But he does not present 
proofs. No statement of the evidence on which he bases 
his sweeping charges has appeared in print. * * * 

Of the 238 Roosevelt contests i64 were frivolous or 
fraudulent, and were withdrawn or abandoned. Only 74 



THE NAKED TRUTH 23 

remained. The evidence in these cases and in some of the 
others was heard at great length by the Republican 
National committee and again by the credentials com- 
mittee. * * * 

Mr. Roosevelt never had a majority of the convention 
of rightfully elected delegates. His pretensions to such 
a majority are fraudulent. From the moment that he 
was forced to submit his contests to the test at Chicago, 
he encouraged his spokesmen, like Heney and Dixon, to 
shout "theft" and "fraud" and to create the popular im- 
pression that the nomination was stolen. — New York 
World, July 29, 1912. 

I now wish to put into evidence a leading editorial from the 
Philadelphia Inquirer, showing how the Roosevelt campaign of 
fraud and falsehood was carried on. The Inquirer says: 

FEEDING ON FALSEHOODS. 

Mr. Roosevelt repeated to an Idaho audience his oft- 
told tale of how he was cheated out of the nomination 
at the Republican convention. It is characteristic of 
Roosevelt that he never goes into the details. He con- 
tents himself with making claims. He was cheated, and 
that is all there was to it. That is his wail. Everyone 
who says he wasn't cheated is a liar. And so on. 

Well, he was not cheated. He was simply not per- 
mitted to cheat on his own account. He had conspired 
to steal that nomination after he had discovered that he 
could not win it by fair means. The bogus contests that 
he instituted weeks after regular conventions had been 
held were of the most contemptible sort. They were 
intended to deceive the people. They served their pur- 
pose. When his hand-made contesting delegates were 
repudiated, and usually by Roosevelt members of both 
the National Committee and the convention's own Com- 
mittee on Credentials, he lifted his voice to cry fraud. 
It was in his own claims that the real fraud lay. We say 
it without reservation that in all of the history of the 
United States there has never appeared a candidate who 
has had so little honesty of motive, so little political 
decency back of his candidacy. Roosevelt has founded 
his bid for public support on trickery, treachery, decep- 
tion, hypocrisy and attempted theft of delegates and of 
electors. 

To put it briefly, Roosevelt is feeding the people on 
falsehoods. That sort of diet gets fearfully stale after 
awhile. — Philadelphia Inquirer. 



24 THE NAKED TRUTH 

THE WASHINGTON CASE 

Let us now take up the Wasliington case. The control of 
the state convention in that state hinged upon King county, in 
which the city of Seattle is located. In the state of Washington, 
under the primary law, the county committee can select the dele- 
gates to the state convention which elects delegates to the national 
convention. 

The county committee of King county had a meeting and 
delegated the power and authority to the executive committee to 
select such delegates. Aftenv^ards the common council of the 
city of Seattle changed the districts in that city, making 131 addi- 
tional precincts. The committee had another meeting and the 
chairman of the committee was a Roosevelt man, and at that 
meeting it was decided that the new additional committeemen 
could not be elected until the regular primary in September and 
that they must be elected by the party voters themselves. After- 
wards the agents of the trusts, who were financing Col. Roosevelt's 
campaign, got to work, and the chairman of the committee got 
busy and called another meeting of the committee, and when the 
regular members of the committee met at the time and place desig- 
nated in the call, they were confronted there by 131 men claiming 
to be new members of the committee. 

The regular committeemen at once ascertained that the Roose- 
velt chairman, who, like Lyon of Texas, believes in the sacred right 
of the people to rule, without any authority of law and in violation 
of all decency and honor, had, himself, appointed 131 new members. 
He could just as well have appointed 500 new members. He had 
just as much right and authority to make a new committee from 
top to bottom as he had to appoint 131 new members. The regu- 
lar committeemen refused to recognize these illegal appointments 
and the meeting broke up in disorder. The minority members on 
the regular committee, acting with the illegal appointees, then 
called an illegal primary without any warrant of law. 

President Taff s friends and Senator La Follette's friends put 
advertisements in the newspapers warning all of their friends to 
stay away from the primary, as it was an illegal primary, and 
when the vote was cast, although there were between 75,000 and 
100,000 Republican voters in the city, only 6,000 votes were cast 



THE NAKED TRUTH 25 

and they were practically all cast for Roosevelt. A few who did 
not see the notices straggled into the primary and voted for Tafi 
and for La Follette and the next morning we read dispatches in 
the newspapers announcing that Roosevelt had carried Seattle hy a 
vote of 10 to 1. Great achievement ! Wonderful victory ! And 
this is the way the 'T^unco" game was carried on. 

When the state convention met in the state of Washington, 
these delegates, elected in an illegal primary, never presented their 
credentials to the regular convention at all, but went to another 
"bolting" convention and were admitted there. The regular state 
convention was controlled by President Taft's friends and they 
elected delegates to the national convention, and these delegates 
were seated by the Republican national committee, by the cre- 
dentials committee and by the convention. 

There never was anything to this contest any more than there 
was to the southern fraudulent contests, and all the proof any in- 
telligent person needs on this subject is to be told that Gov. 
Wilson's friends in the state of Washington carried on the same 
kind of a primary that Col. Roosevelt's friends did and that when 
his delegates were presented to the Democratic national convention 
at Baltimore, they were thrown out of the Demiocratic convention 
upon precisely the same grounds and for precisely the same reasons 
that Col. Roosevelt's delegates were thrown out of the Chicago 
Republican convention, and Champ Clark's delegates, who were 
elected precisely as Taft's delegates were elected, were seated in 
the Baltimore convention. 

Does any sane, intelligent, right-minded citizen believe for a 
moment that the Democratic national convention would have nom- 
inated Woodrow Wilson for president and at the same time would 
have thrown out his delegates from Washington if they had been 
legally and honestly elected to that convention ? The statement of 
the case shows the absurdity of the proposition. 

THE CALIFORNIA CASE 

I wish now to call your attention to the California case, about 
which you have heard more than any other, and this is one of the 
clearest and plainest cases of them all. The Republican national 
committee met in December and issued the call for the Republican 
national convention. That call was issued in accordance with the 



26 THE NAKED TRUTH 

rules and regulations adopted by the Republican national conven- 
tion of 1908, which convention was controlled l)v Col. Roosevelt 
and the call provided : 

That in no state shall an election be so held as to 
prevent the delegates from any congressional district and 
their alternates being selected by the representative 
electors of the district. 

Thus it will be seen that the call provided that all the dele- 
gates to the Republican national convention must be elected by 
congressional districts and that the voters in each congressional 
district should elect such delegates. This has always been the rule 
of the Republican party, or at least for fifty years. This rule was 
reaffirmed by the convention controlled by Roosevelt in 1908. 

After the national committee issued its call and this rule went 
into operation, there was no power on earth that could suspend it. 
There is no power on earth that could vitiate the call or change its 
provisions. Not even the Congress of the United States, not even 
the Supreme Court of the United States, could change or vitiate 
that rule. The only tribunal that had any jurisdiction over the 
rules and regulations put in operation by the committee was the 
next Republican national convention, wliich was to convene on the 
18th of June, 1912. 

Gov. Hiram Johnson of California, who wanted to carry his 
state for Roosevelt, conceived the idea that he would have a new 
primary law passed and so he called an extra session of the Cali- 
fornia legislature for that purpose. When the matter was up for 
consideration Johnson and the Roosevelt followers believed that 
some of the congressional districts might elect delegates for Tafi 
and others might elect delegates for Senator La Follette, so out of 
the purity of their own hearts, the sanctity of their own minds and 
the hypocrisy of their whole beings, they conceived the idea of 
passing a primary law taking out of the hands of the voters in 
each congressional district the right to elect their own representa- 
tives, as provided by the Republican national convention, and 
instead have the delegates to the national convention elected by the 
whole state at large. 

This action was taken for the express purpose of cheating and 
rolling both Taft and La Follette of any delegates that might be 
elected in any congressional district for them. If such a law was 



THE NAKED TRUTH Z7 

on the statute books in this state, New York City would elect the 
delegates for us in this congressional district and we would have 
nothing to say about it. That is what Col. Eoosevelt and Gov. 
Johnson calls the rule of the people — their people. 

Senator Borah and other distinguished lawyers wrote Gov, 
Johnson at the time that if the delegates were elected in that man- 
ner they could not legally be admitted into the Republican con- 
vention, because the rules and regulations of the convention pro- 
vided that they must be elected by congressional districts and that 
the people in each district should and must have the right to elect 
their own delegates. Gov. Johnson announced that he would defy 
the rules and regulations of the national convention and pass his 
primary law just the same, which he did. 

T\Tien the contest from the fourth district of California came 
up for consideration, it brought up the whole question. It was 
admitted by every lawyer, who had any legal perception and common 
sense, that all delegates from the state of California could be ex- 
cluded from the convention because they were not elected in 
accordance with the rules and regulations of that convention and 
the act which provided for their being elected in another way was 
passed after the rules and regulations had already gone into opera- 
tion and the legislature that passed the act knew that those rules 
and regulations were in operation before it passed the law ignoring 
them. 

Col. Roosevelt said in The Outlook that the national commit- 
tee repudiated the primary law in the state of California. This 
statement of Col. Roosevelt's is the exact opposite of the truth. 
The state of California repudiated the rules and regulations of the 
national Republican convention — the Roosevelt convention of 1908. 
This is exactly what was done, but the state of California had no 
authority in the matter. If that state could repudiate the rules 
and regulations of the national Republican party, then any state 
could do it and every state could do it and no convention could be 
held at all. The statement of the proposition shows its absurdity. 

Now what did the national committee do when this contest 
came up? The committee, recognizing the fact that technically it 
could throw out every delegate from the state of California, con- 
cluded to ascertain the will of the people in each congressional dis- 
trict in accordance with the rules and regulations of the convention 



28 THE NAKED TRUTH 

and seat the delegates elected by the voters of each congressional 
district. There were twenty-four delegates elected for Roosevelt 
and two for Taft. The twenty-four for Roosevelt could have been 
thrown out with the two for Taft and thereby Taft's friends could 
have gained twenty-two delegates in the convention, which they had 
a perfect right to do. But the committee said in effect, ''We will 
waive this technical point and we will decide this case in accord- 
ance with right, justice and equity, and we will allow the will of the 
people to stand as expressed in the primaries in the congressional 
districts, in accordance with the rules and regulations of the 
Republican convention," and by doing this Col. Roosevelt got 
twenty-four delegates while President Taft got only two. This is 
all there is of the California case, about which you have heard so 
much. 

Now I want to again call your attention to the fact that there 
were 164 contests brought by Col, Roosevelt and his friends which 
were unanimously thrown out by the committee, as fraudulent, 
trumped up contests. This narrowed the dispute down to 72, and 
Col. Roosevelt's friends charged Taft's friends with stealing the 72, 
after admitting that they tried to steal 164. Now the only dispute 
is about the 72. They admitted that they tried to steal 164 and T 
submit that if they would try to steal 164 they would also try to 
steal the other 73. They pleaded guilty on 164 counts in the 
indictment and this creates a presumption amounting to a certainty 
that they were guilty on the other 72 counts in the indictment. 
The presumption is against them, the evidence is against them, the 
facts are against them, and the decisions were all against them and 
they did not have a leg to stand upon. 

Every one of the contests were tried out by three separate and 
distinct tribunals, every one of which had a legal and constituted 
authority to act. First, they were tried out by the national com- 
mittee and decided by that committee ; second, they were tried out 
by the credentials committee and decided by that committee, and 
m every case by a decisive vote, and then they were passed upon by 
the national Republican convention itself, which is the supreme 
council of the party and from whose decision there is no appeal. 

This is all there is to the charge of stolen delegates. Col. 
Roosevelt and his friends admit that they tried to steal 164 and 
we admit that they tried to steal the other 72. When reduced to 



THE NAKED TEUTH W 

the last analysis, Col. Eoosevelt's friends, to hide their own shame, 
simply charged Taft's friends with the crime that they themselves 
tried to commit. Col. Roosevelt says, "Thou shalt not steal," and 
I say imto Theodore, "Thou shouldst not try to steal; and when 
detected, exposed and prevented, thou shouldst not squeal." 

When Col. Eoosevelt and his delegates went into the Eepubli- 
can national convention, took part in its deliberations, became a 
part of the convention and staid in the convention until after the 
present platform was adopted, and he was voted for in that conven- 
tion after the adoption of the platform, he was in honor bound and 
every one of his delegates was in honor bound to abide by the 
decision of that convention, the same as they would have expected 
President Taft's friends to abide by the decision of the convention 
had Col. Eoosevelt been nominated, and when Col. Eoosevelt 
"bolted" that convention he played the "baby act." There is no 
clearer case of playing the "baby act" in recorded history since Eve 
ate the apple and Adam played the "baby act" in the Garden of 
Eden. 

THE CALIFORNIA ELECTORS 

Eight here I want to call your attention to the fact that Gov. 
Johnson of California has followed up his iniquitous primary law 
to its logical conclusion. He has disfranchised every Eepublican 
voter in the state of California. No Eepublican in the state of 
California, either man or woman, can vote for President Taft this 
year on a regular ticket, except by writing in the names of the 
electors, which is practically impossible. Gov. Johnson and his 
friends stole the Eepublican name in the state of California in the 
primaries, the case was taken to the courts and the courts of that 
state declared that the Johnson primary law disfranchised the Re- 
publicans of the state of California, and the judges from the bench 
denoimced the law as an outrage, but said that inasmuch as it was 
the law and no constitutional question was involved, the courts had 
no jurisdiction in the matter. 

And this Gov. Johnson is a candidate for vice-president on the 
so-called reform Progressive ticket, this man who has preached 
honesty and charged others with "stealing" and who has "stolen" 
the name of the Eepublican party, after becoming a traitor to that 
party. He has carried out his iniquitous purpose to disfranchise the 



30 THE NAKED TRUTH 

Eepublicans of his own state at the election, the same as he intended 
to disfranchise the electors in the congressional districts by not 
permitting them to select their own delegates to the Eepublican 
national convention. 

And let me call your attention to the fact that Gov. Johnson's 
own father, a former congressman from that state, has come out 
and denounced the action of his son. His father declares that 
inasmuch as he has been disfranchised by this primary law, to- 
gether with other Republicans, he will not vote for either Theodore 
Roosevelt or his son, Hiram Johnson, but that he will cast his vote 
for Woodrow Wilson. This is the verdict that Gov. Johnson's 
father has passed upon his son. I submit to you, my fellow citi- 
zens, that Gov. Johnson's father knows his son better than anybody 
else, and he has passed a verdict of condemnation upon him. 



CLARK AND ROOSEVELT 

I wish to call 3^our attention to the difference between Speaker 
Champ Clark and Col. Koosevelt. If ever a man had a right to 
bolt a convention because he was unfairly beaten out of the nom- 
ination, that man is Speaker Clark. On several ballots he had a 
majority vote of the regularly elected delegates to the Democratic 
national convention at Baltimore. 

While it takes a two-thirds vote under the Democratic party 
rule to nominate, yet never since that rule has been in operation, 
or at least for the past quarter of a century, has a Democratic con- 
vention failed or refused to nominate the man who succeeded in 
securing a majority of the votes of all the delegates regularly 
elected to the convention. 

At the Democratic convention at Baltimore, however, notwith- 
standing the fact that Clark had a majority of the votes on several 
ballots, in violation of all party precedents, the convention refused 
to nominate him and nominated Woodrow Wilson. Did Speaker 
Clark bolt? Did he cry, "Thief! Eobber! Pickpocket!" and 
slander the whole Demx)cratic party ? No ! He was game ; he was 
loyal. He is a patriotic, true-hearted and loyal Democrat and 
therefore he accepted the verdict of the Democratic convention and 
is doing everything in his power to help elect his rival for the 
nomination. 

It takes a real man to do this. It takes a man who is really 
heroic, who really believes in the principles of his party and who 
does not place his own selfish ambition above the welfare and suc- 
cess of his party. Although he was defeated as no man had been 
defeated in a Democratic convention, Speaker Clark did not bolt his 
party. He did not slander the Democratic party and then try to 
destroy it, simply because some of the delegates deserted him at the 
critical time in the convention. 

But how about Koosevelt? He was beaten, and fairly beaten, 
under the rules and regidations and the precedents which have 
obtained in his party since its foundation. He was beaten in 
accordance with the very rules and precedents confirmed by himself 

31 



32 THE NAKED TEUTH 

in the Republican national convention of 1908, which he controlled. 
He was openly, honestly and regularly defeated in the Eepublican 
national convention and was denied a nomination which he gave 
the American people his solemn pledge he would not take, in the 
following emphatic words: 

On the 4th day of March next I shall have served 
three and one-half years, and this three and one-half years 
constitutes my first term. The wise custom which limits 
the president to two terms regards the substance and not 
the form. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate 
for or accept another nomination." — Statement of Mr. 
Roosevelt, Nov. 8, 1904. 

After being denied a nomination which he thus pledged the 
American people he would not take, what did Roosevelt do? He 
bolted the Republican convention ; he ran the assassin's dagger into 
the heart of his party. He created a new party for the express 
purpose of trying to destroy the Republican party, and he did this 
in every state. In one of his campaign speeches, while in a fit of 
mad frenzy, he said : 

I will eat the vitals out of the Republican party. 

Think of the malignity of such party treason; think of the 
revengeful savagery of this disappointed demagogue. Schrank com- 
mitted the dastardly crime of trying to assassinate Roosevelt. 
Roosevelt is committing the dastardly crime of trying to assassinate 
the Republican party, — the party that made him. Roosevelt, to 
gratify a malignant revenge, is politically trying to murder his 
mother, who nursed and carried him from obscurity to fame. By 
doing this he has already placed his name in history beside that of 
Judas and Benedict Arnold. 

My fellow Republicans, let us pause for a moment to drop a 
tear of pity on the ruin wrought to a great reputation by inflated 
egotism and a demented ambition. 

Right here I wish to utter a word of warning to the honest and 
sincere men and women, and especially to the clergy of this coun- 
try, who are joining this third party movement on the theory that 
it is a movement for moral uplift and social justice. I want to 
say emphatically that no man whose mind is inspired by revenge, 
whose heart is black with malignity and whose soul is stained with 
unjustifiable party treason, can ever become the unselfish leader of 



THE NAKED TEUTH 33 

a moral crusade or the honest champion of social justice. Long- 

inus says : 

The bane of true genius in the present day is that 
dissolution of morals which, with few exceptions, pre- 
vails among men, who, in all they do or undertake, seek 
only applause and self-gratification, without a thought of 
that public utility which cannot be too zealously pursued 
or too highly valued. 



CANADIAN RECIPROCITY 

I want to say a few words on the subject of Canadian reci- 
procity and I want to tell you exactly who is to blame for having 
that issue raised in this country. The American farmers were to 
blame for having this issue raised during the past two years. 

After the Payne tariff bill was passed and signed by President 
Taft, which amply protected the farm products of the country, if 
the American farmers had elected a Eepublican House of Repre- 
sentatives you would never have heard of Canadian reciprocity. 
But when under the splendid administration of President Taft the 
American farmers were prospering as never before and they were 
so busy on the farm and so absorbed in money making under the 
beneficence of a protective policy, they forgot to go to the polls and 
vote for Republican congressmen, and they remained at home and 
allowed the Democratic electors to go to the polls and elect a 
Democratic Congress and by doing this they laid the foundation 
for the reciprocity agreement with Canada. 

As soon as that verdict was pronounced at the polls, as soon as 
it was known that a Democratic House of Representatives had been 
elected, all the Democratic newspapers took advantage of the situa- 
tion to declare that it was a repudiation of the Republican policy of 
protection and the Payne tariff law. 

The insurgent Republicans of the West, who were looking for 
an opportunity to embarrass President Taft, took up the same issue. 
The newspapers which had entered into a conspiracy to write down 
the tariff law, because they were not allowed to have free print 
paper, also took up the question and started a ceaseless agitation 
in favor of a reduction of the tariff duties and they nearly all 
favored Canadian reciprocity. 

President Taft, confronted with this situation, thought that 
if this was the verdict of the people, if the people had decided that 
the Republican protective policy was wrong, then tne only thing 
to do was to experiment with the other theory in as limited a 
degree as possible and with a country where it would do as little 
harm as possible. So he conceived the idea of experimenting with 

35 



36 THE NAKED TRUTH 

reciprocity with Canada in order to satisfy the demands of the 
people, believing that such an agreement with Canada would do 
less harm to the American farmers than such an agreement with 
any other country, because the conditions in Canada and the 
United Sta,tes are nearer identical than they are in any other 
country in the world. 

President Taft, however, before making this Canadian agree- 
ment, submitted the whole proposition, including the details of 
the agreement, to Col. Theodore Roosevelt and asked for his judg- 
ment in regard to the same. Col. Roosevelt urged President Taft 
to take this step and make the reciprocity agreement with Canada, 
declaring in a personal letter to President Taft that he was noi 
only in favor of reciprocity with Canada, but that he was in favor 
of absolute free trade. 

This, in brief, is the history of the rise of the reciprocity 
issue and its fall occurred when it was rejected by Canada. If 
the American farmers had elected a Republican House of Repre- 
sentatives to sustain the protective policy as laid down in the 
Payne tariff law; if the American farmers had elected a Repub- 
lican House of Representatives to sustain President Taft and his 
administration after he had signed the Pa}Tie tariff bill, which 
adequately protected their interests, there would never have arisen 
in this country the question of Canadian reciprocity. It was the 
negligence of the farmers in not performing their duty, in not 
supporting a Republican president and a Republican administra- 
tion, which led to the Canadian reciprocity issue. 

But however that may be, the issue is now dead. It was 
rejected by Canada and after it was rejected by Canada a Repub- 
lican Senate voted to repeal the agreement, and all the votes 
against repeal were cast by Democrats and Roosevelt Progressives, 
and when it came over to the House Congressman Payne, from this 
district, moved three times to repeal the Canadian reciprocity 
agreement. As a memljcr of the Ways and Means Committee he 
made this motion, which motion was opposed by Mr. Underwood, 
the Democratic leader, and every Democrat on the committee 
voted against it. 

When the question of repealing Canadian reciprocity came up 
in the House, every Republican voted in favor of it the last time 
except two, and every Democrat in the House voted against repeal- 



THE NAKED TRUTH 37 

ing the Canadian reciprocity agreement except about six. The 
two parties have taken a direct stand upon this proposition, the 
Eepublican party for the repeal of Canadian reciprocity, and the 
Democratic party against it. Which party, my farmer friend, 
are you going to support? 

If you are against Canadian reciprocity, how can you support 
the Democratic party? If you are against Canadian reciprocity, 
how are you going to support Col. Roosevelt, who declared that he 
is in favor not only of reciprocity with Canada, but absolute free 
trade ?" 

Not only this, but a vote for Roosevelt is half a vote for 
Wilson and is half a vote to carry into operation the Democratic 
free trade theory, not only with Canada, but with all the rest of 
the world, 

Mr. Underwood, in his Farmers' Free List Bill, put all the 
products of the farm on the free list with all the world, but he 
made an exception in favor of rice, because it is raised in the 
southern states. Every Canadian newspaper is in favor of the 
election of Woodrow Wilson because they say that if the Demo- 
cratic party wins, Canada will then have free trade with the 
United States without giving anything in return, as she would be 
obliged to do under a reciprocity agreement. 

Not only this, but I wish to call your attention to the fact 
that the Republican national convention in its platform declares 
for equal protection to the American farmer, the American work- 
ing man and American industries and that President Taft accepts 
the terms of that platform and stands upon it and is running as a 
candidate for re-election upon that platform, and therefore Pres- 
ident Taft and the Republican party in this campaign stand for 
protection to the American farmer against Canada and every 
other country. 

So, my farmer friend, the question narrows down to 
whether or not you are going to vote the Republican ticket and 
for protection and a continuance of prosperity or whether you 
are going to give a full vote for Wilson and free trade or a half 
vote for free trade by voting for Roosevelt. 



THE TARIFF 

The tariff question is one of the leading issues in this cam- 
paign, and you have probably heard a great deal of discussion on 
this subject. If every nation were the same, if every nation had the 
same civilization, the same standard of morals, the same standard 
of living, the same standard of wages and the conditions all over 
the world were exactly the same, then free trade would be the ideal 
theory. But in this world we have to frame our industrial theory 
to fit people as they exist and conditions as they are, and if our 
theory does not work out practically, and secure beneficial results, 
it is in fact no true theory at all, but is simply a phantom of the 
mind. 

Col. IngersoU once said: 

All of the argument is in favor of free trade and all 
the facts are against it. 

This is true. The arguments are in favor of the theory and 
the facts are all against its operation and I will tell you why. For 
instance, if we remove all the tariff duties and put our laboring 
men and manufacturers and our farmers in direct competition with 
all the world, we will not be able to improve the conditions of 
other nations, we will not be able to raise their standard of living, 
their standard of wages, we will not be able to elevate their morals 
or their civilization and lift them up to our level, but they will 
be able to drag us down to their level by compelling us to accept 
their conditions in order to compete with them. This is so simple 
that a child can understand it. 

It is the duty of a nation first of all to protect its own people, 
to conserve their interests and build up and multiply and diversify 
their industries, Efvery nation, with this great object in view, 
should endeavor to possess within itself all the needs of national 
supply. These consist of the necessary means to supply suste- 
nance, habitation, clothing and defense. The possession of these 
needs by home production, to the largest possible extent, is neces- 
sary to secure the perfection of the body politic, the welfare of 
society and the safety and independence of a nation. 

We are all bom into this world with certain talents and capa- 

39 



40 THE NAKED TRUTH 

bilities, and nature has fixed upon every one of us a limit. Nature 
distributes her gifts with a secret and subtle hand and we can no 
more change nature's distribution of talents, wisdom and virtue, 
by law, than we can change her distribution of physical form and 
beauty. 

We can, however, by industry, energy and diligence develop 
ourselves, up to the limit that nature has fixed upon us. Some of 
us have talent for one thing and some another. Nature has given 
all of us different talents and with this great diversity of talents 
we must have a diversity of industries to employ those talents to 
the end, that every person may seek and find the occupation for 
which his abilities best fit him, and thereby be enabled to reach the 
highest state of efficiency, make the most rapid progress in his 
work and be of the greatest benefit to himself, his family and 
society. 

By this system opportimity is given to every individual to 
employ his talents in the field of their natural bent, and by doing 
this, he rises to the highest point of efficiency and citizenship that 
his energy, character and abilities can carry him. I wish to read 
you a paragraph on this subject as follows : 

When all the different kinds of industry obtain in a 
community, each individual can And his proper element, 
and can call into activity the whole vigor of his nature. 
And the community is benefited by the services of its 
representative members in the manner in which each can 
serve it with the most effect. 

This is the philosophy of a protective tariff and these words 
were uttered by the man who first conceived of this policy and 
inaugurated it in this country, and he was one of the greatest 
creative and constructive statesmen the world has ever known, — 
Alexander Hamilton. 

I wish to call your attention to the fact that every civilized 
nation with the single exception of England, has adopted a protec- 
tive tariff and for the very reasons so clearly stated by Hamilton. 
The great German statesman, Bismarck, had the protective policy 
adopted by Germany and cited the growth, expansion, development 
and prosperity of the United States, as an evidence of its beneficent 
results. The greatest statesman of England in recent years, Hon. 
Joseph Chamberlain, urged this same policy upon that country 



THE NAKED TRUTH 41 

and was making great headway with its advocacy when he was 
taken ill and was unable to continue the fight. 

George B. Curtis in his great work entitled "The Industrial 
Development of Nations," writing of the present drift of our free 
trade neighbor across the water, says : 

% England, a mere speck on the map of the world, for 
one hundred years was the mistress of the world's com- 
merce, and by all odds the most powerful nation of the 
globe; all because of her many and magnificent indus- 
tries. It is worth while to note that, as she declines in 
power upon the sea and upon the land, her industries are 
also falling behind those of the United States and of 
Germany in their fertility and strength. She is going 
the way of Ancient Rome and from the same causes. 

You have heard it stated by campaign orators that whenever 
this country has adopted a free trade policy its operation has al- 
ways been followed by business bankruptcy, financial panic and 
industrial paralysis. This is true and I will tell you the reason. 
Because when the Democratic party obtains control of the govern- 
ment, the control and management of shaping the industrial pol- 
icy of the country goes to the South. The Solid South is the Dem- 
ocratic party and the control of the politics of that party goes to 
the South, when the Democratic party wins. 

Before the Civil War the Democratic party was the great con- 
structive and conservative party, but when this country divided 
on the issue of preserving the Union by putting down secession, 
and on the other great issue of freeing the slaves, one a patriotic 
and the other a moral issue, these issues were the two great mag- 
nets which drew into the Republican party the best heart and brain 
of the country. Men of prominence who had always been Demo- 
crats and who were some of the leading statesmen of the North 
and West joined the Republican party upon these two issues and 
they have been with the Republican party ever since, and so have 
their descendants. 

When the Republican party is in control of the government 
the industrial policy of the nation is shaped by the statesmen who 
live in the North and the West, — in the states which are normally 
Republican, — and these statesmen are familiar with the needs and 
requirements of our industries and our agricultural interests and 



42 THE NAKED TRUTH 

they frame and fit our industrial policy to suit our complex indus- 
trial conditions. 

This is the reason that they are in favor of a protective tariff, 
to create a diversity of industries, to employ our diversity of talents 
to build up and develop business, which always results in prosperity. 
But when the Democratic party obtains control of the government 
and this control goes to the South and the policy is shaped by the 
southern statesmen, a sudden change for the worse always happens. 

The reason is that the speaker of the House, the chairman of 
the Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of everj^ impor- 
tant committee comes from the southern states, because the Solid 
South is the controlling factor in the Democratic party. When 
these statesmen shape our policy they always inaugurate the policy 
of free trade or tariff for revenue only. This is what they did in 
1892, when Crisp of Georgia was speaker and Wilson of West 
Virginia was chairman of the Ways and ]\Ieans Committee and 
they enacted the Wilson tariff law. This year Champ Clark of Mis- 
souri is speaker and Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama is chairman 
of the Ways and Means Committee of the House. 

If a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate is elected 
this year the industrial policy of the country will then be shaped 
by the southern statesmen who believe in free trade as declared for 
in the Democratic platforms of 1892 and 1912, both of which 
affirm that a protective tariff is unconstitutional. 

If this happens you can look for the same conditions that pre- 
vailed under Cleveland's last administration and I will tell you 
why. The South is 100 years behind the North in industrial devel- 
opment and in improved farming. The southern statesmen are not 
acquainted with our needs and requirements and they are not in 
favor of a protective tariff which builds up and multiplies and di- 
versifies our industries, because down there they do not need pro- 
tection for any such purpose. They raise nothing in the South but 
Cotton, Cane and Hell. 

Therefore, when our industrial policy is shaped by southern 
hands and by men who live in a section of the country one hundred 
years behind the industrial states of the North and West, by men 
who are ignorant of our needs and necessities, the result is that 
they pull the bottom out from under our industrial system and the 



THE NAKED TRUTH 43 

country suffers the calamity of business depression and industrial 
paralysis. 

I want to say to my Democratic friends that you in the North 
and West are as honest and patriotic and as interested in the 
welfare and prosperity of your country, as are we Republicans, but 
you do not seem to understand that inherent and constitutional 
weakness of the Democratic party. When the Democratic party 
wins in the nation the control goes to the Solid South and you 
Democrats in the North and West are simply the tail to the South- 
ern Democratic kite. The same condition obtains in the State of 
New York, when the Democratic party wins the control goes to 
Tammany Hall and the up-state Democrats are simply the tail of 
the Tammany Tiger. This is the reason that your party can never 
remain in power very long in the nation for the people of the 
North and West will not submit to having their industries des- 
troyed by southern control. And the honest, intelligent and de- 
cent people of the state of New York will not for long submit to 
Tammany methods and domination. Therefore, if you win either 
in the state or nation, your stay in power will be brief. Your party 
will soon break and fall apart. The people will at the first oppor- 
tunity call the Republican party back to power and we Republicans 
will march to victory over the prostrate form of the unfortunate 
and incompetent donkey. 

I wish to call your attention to the fact that 1892 was the 
first time the Democrats obtained complete control of the govern- 
ment since the Civil War. Under Cleveland's first administration 
the Republicans had the Senate, and although the Democrats 
passed the Mills bill in the House they could not put their free 
trade theory in operation because it was blocked by a Republican 
Senate. It is a significant fact that for nineteen years previous to 
Cleveland's last administration there was an average surplus in 
the United States treasury of $68,000,000 and that as soon as the 
Wilson tariff law went into effect this surplus of $68,000,000 was 
wiped out and a deficit of $47,000,000 was created. 

In addition to this Cleveland had to issue bonds to the amount 
of $262,000,000 to keep the machinery of the government in oper- 
ation. The loss to the national treasury as a result of the enact- 
ment of the Wilson tariff law was more than $1,000,000,000, and 
President McKinley said that this loss of $1,000,000,000, together 



44 THE NAKED TRUTH 

with the shrinkage in farm values and in other property, including 
stocks and securities, made the enactment of the Wilson tariff law 
cost the American people as much as the entire cost of the Civil 
War. 

Let me call your attention to the farmer's condition under 
Cleveland's administration and Taft's administration. 

The average price of grain under Cleveland's administration 
and Taft's administration follows: 

Cleveland and Taft Prices Compared. 

Per cent, of 

Average price Average price Increased price Increase 

under Cleveland under Taft per bu. under Taft 

Corn 29.7 57.1 27.4 92 

Barley 36.97 63.5 26.53 71 

Wheat 63.03 91.8 28.5 45 

Oats 23. 41.7 18.7 81 

Eye 44.9 75. 30.1 67 

If we take the highest and lowest prices of the farm products 
under the two administrations we find that according to Senator 
Smoot's figures given in his speech in the United States Senate on 
August 6, 1912, the advance from Cleveland to Taft is as fol- 
lows: 

Advance from Cleveland to Taft. 

Per cent. 

Corn advanced 200 

Wheat advanced 67 

Cotton advanced 28 

Oats advanced 166 

Rye advanced 137 

Barley advanced 308 

Hay advanced 138 

Hops advanced 286 

Potatoes advanced 282 

Flax seed advanced 149 

Fat cattle advanced 62 

Fat hogs advanced 96 

Dairy butter advanced 86 

Eggs advanced 90 

In reply to the statement of Woodrow Wilson that the farm- 
ers have to pay more for what they buy and that this equals the in- 
crease in their farm values and the increased price of their prod- 



THE NAKED TRUTH 45 

ucts, it is interesting to note what ten bushels of corn and twenty 
bushels of barley would purchase under Cleveland and under Taft, 
as shown by the following table : 

Purchasing Value. 

Pounds Sugar 

Under Cleveland ten bushels of corn purchased 56 

Under Taft ten bushels of corn purchase 123 

Bleached Sheeting 

Under Cleveland ten bushels of corn purchased 13 yds. 

Under Taft ten bushels of com purchase 31 yds. 

Shoes 

Under Cleveland ten bushels of corn purchased 1 pair 

Under Taft ten bushels of corn purchase 2 pairs 

Pounds of Rice 
Under Cleveland twenty bushels of barley purchased. Ill 

Under Taft twenty bushels of barley purchase 495 

Gallons of Molasses 
Under Cleveland twenty bushels of barley purchased. 19 
Under Taft twenty bushels of barley purchase 57 

The same proportion of increased purchasing power holds good 
as to all the staple products of the farmers. 

During the ten years, from 1900 to 1910, farm values in this 
country increased from $20,000,000,000 to $40,000,000,000, which 
is an increase of over 100% and the value of farm products in- 
creased at the same time from $4,000,000,000 to $8,000,000,000, 
which is an increase of $4,000,000,000 and is nearly another 100% 
increase as shown by the following tables : 

Increase in Farm Values. 

1900 $20,439,901,164 

1910 40,991,499,090 



Increase in farm values $20,551,547,926 

This is an increase of 100.05 per cent. 

Increase in Farm Products. 

1900 farm products $4,417,069,973 

1910 farm products 8,694,000,000 



Increase in farm products in ten years. .$4,276,930,027 
The increase of 100.05 per cent, in farm values and the in- 
crease of nearly 100 per cent, in the value of farm products makes 
a total benefit to the farmer of 200 per cent. My farmer friend, 
do you want a changed 



PROTECTION AND THE WORKINGMAN 

The workingmen in this country are better housed, better fed, 
and better clothed and are more happy and contented than in any 
other country in the world, because they receive higher wages and are 
more prosperous than the workingmen of any other country. 

The Bureau of Eailway Economics in its report on the sub- 
ject of wages in this country and others says : 

The average daily compensation of railway employees 
of all classes for the year 1910 was in the United States 
$2.23; in the United Kingdom, $1.05; excluding supple- 
mentary allowances negligibly affecting the average, it 
was in Prussia-Hesse 81 cents; and in Austria 89 cents. 
The lowest paid railway employee in the United States, 
the ordinary track-man, receives a greater compensation 
than many of the railway employees of France, even those 
of higher grades and with responsible duties. The com- 
pensation of railway employees is from two to three 
times as high in the United States as in Italy. 

The difference in wages of the workingmen in America and 
in free trade England is shown by the following table : 

Average Daily Earnings. 

United States United Kingdom 
Occupation 1907-8 October, 1907 

All occupations (except officers and clerks) $2.19 $1,048 

Station men, other than agents 1.82 0.90 

Enginemen 4.45 1.86 

Firemen 2.64 1.11 

Conductors 3.81 1.23 

Other trainmen 2.60 1.25 

Machinists 2.95 1.285 

Carpenters 2.40 1.285 

Other Shopmen 2.12 0.88 

Trackmen (other than section foremen) .... 1.45 0.89 
Switch tenders, crossing tenders and watch- 
men 1.78 1.07 

"All other employees and laborers" 1.97 0.99 

The average daily earnings of railway employees in 1907 amount- 
ed to $2.19 in the United States and $1,048 in the United King- 

47 



48 THE NAKED TRUTH 

dom, the earnings for the United States being 109 per cent, great- 
er than for the United Kingdom. 

For the separate occupation classes, the pay received in the 
United States is higher than the pay of the corresponding classes 
in the United Kingdom by the following percentages: 

Increased 
Occupation per cent. 

Conductors 209.8 

Enginemen 139.2 

Firemen 137.8 

Machinists 129.6 

"Other trainmen" 108.0 

"Other station men" 102.2 

"All other employees" 90.0 

Switch tenders, crossing tenders and watchmen 66.4 
Tracltmen (other than section foremen) 62.9 

I wish to call the workingman's attention to the fact that 
Japan and China are now coming to the front as commercial and 
competing nations for the trade of the world and the labor condi- 
tions in these countries have a direct bearing upon the labor situa- 
tion in this country at the present time. The ofi&cial figures fur- 
nished the Ways and Means committee show that in Japan, the 
most progressive part of Asia, the following wages prevail : 

Occupation Wages per day No. of hours 

Brick layers $.45 9-9y2 

Carpenters 50 9-9y2 

Laborers ,35 9 

Painters 45 9V2 

Plumbers 35 9 

Stone cutters 42i^ 9 

Coal miners 41 9 

Coal mine laborers 28 9 

Compositors 45 7 

Farm laborers, male 19 10 

Farm laborers, female 10% 10 

Flint bottle makers 51 9 

Horse shoers 28 8 

Blowers, Bessemer process 321^ 10 

Sawyers in lumber mills 30 9 

This list might be multiplied indefinitely, but I have given 
enough to show labor conditions in Japan. If the American 
manufacturer must compete directly with Japan, the only way that 



THE NAKED TRUTH 49 

he can do so is to produce as cheaply, and the only way he can 
produce as cheaply is to obtain his labor at the same low price. It 
requires no great intellect to comprehend this proposition. 

In 1892, under President Harrison's administration, the 
country was more prosperous than it ever had been before, but the 
people decided that they wanted a change and they got it. Imme- 
diately after election, when Harrison had been defeated and 
Cleveland elected and a Democratic House and Senate were 
elected and the full control of the government was to be turned 
over to the Democratic party, President Harrison made a state- 
ment in which he said: 

The lesson of one generation is lost on the next. 

He said it had been so long since the people of the country 
had been educated in the school of adversity, which the Democratic 
free trade policy always produced, that they had forgotten its 
calamitous effects and they would have to experience these results 
again. He predicted that the inauguration of the Democratic 
policy of a tariff for revenue only would lead to business bankruptcy^ 
industrial paralysis and universal distress. His prophecy was 
fulfilled. 

Eight here I wish to call your attention to the fact that every 
bright page in the history of this country, which has been written 
since the Civil War, was written by the hand of the Republican 
party and that the only dark page written in our history since 
that time was written by the hand of the Democratic party under 
Cleveland's last administration. As predicted by President Har- 
rison, the enactment of the Wilson tariff law resulted in wide- 
spread business disaster. 

More than 3,000,000 men out of employment, soup houses in 
every city, closed mills, silent factories, the wheels of toil standing 
idle, bank failures every day, the honest and industrious poor fall- 
ing under the mercy of the money sharks, woe on every hand, 
wails from every quarter, all kinds of property, investments and 
securities slumping to the vanishing point, while the accumulated 
savings of a lifetime disappeared like the sun-touched dew. 

This was the calamity brought upon the American people by 
the enactment of the Wilson free trade tariff law. There was no 
alleviation from this distress and these conditions until the people 
repented of their folly in "sack cloth and ashes" and prayed to the 



50 THE NAKED TRUTH 

"God who emancipated ancient Israel for a deliverance from the 
living death" and for a restoration of the industrial possibilities 
and opportunities from which they had so wantonly and so per- 
versely turned away. 

The answer to their prayers came in the election of a Eepub- 
lican Congress and a Republican President, William McKinley. 
Then followed an extra session of Congress, then followed the 
enactment of the Dingley tariff law on a protective basis, then 
followed the revival of business, the mills and factories were re- 
opened, the fires were rekindled in the furnaces, the countless 
wheels of toil were again set in motion and from every factory in 
the land the smoke once again went circling up to the happy sky. 

Then followed a rapid rise in the value of all kinds of property 
and securities, then followed the full dinner pail and the working- 
men all employed at good wages, and from that time until the 
present, the pathway of the American people has been strewn with 
the flowers of popular comfort. Our industries multiplied and 
expanded, property and securities continued to increase in value, 
until today we are at the high tide of industrial development and 
national prosperity, and we have reached this high position under 
the protective policy of the Republican party and the splendid 
administration of William Howard Taft. 



ROOSEVELT AND THE TRUSTS 

We are living in a history making time. This is a progressive 
age. We have advanced so rapidly that we have just discovered 
that the only way to bust a trust is to "strike" it for a large cam- 
paign contribution. This is the new Roosevelt progressive way. 

Colonel Roosevelt during his term as President of the United 
States posed before the country as the enemy of trusts. He was 
always denouncing the "malefactors of great wealth," and he 
fooled the American people into believing that he really was an 
enemy of the trusts. A careful examination of his record as 
President, however, reveals the startling fact that when he 
entered the White House there were in this country 149 big trusts 
and combinations and when he left the presidency and turned the 
government over to President Taft, there were in this country 
10,020 big trusts and combinations. 

When Roosevelt assumed the duties of President the 149 
trusts and combinations had a capitalization of $3,000,000,000. 
When he left the President's ofl&ce the 10,020 trusts and combina- 
tions had a capitalization of $31,000,000,000. If Washington was 
the father of his country, then Roosevelt is the father of trusts. 

It is admitted that during his term as President Col. Roose- 
velt never lost an opportunity to denounce what he termed "bad 
trusts," but he declared at the same time that there were "good 
trusts." Nobody knew until recently what he meant by good 
trusts. 

The revelations before the Senate investigating committee in 
regard to campaign contributions has thrown a new and luminous 
light upon this subject. The evidence before that committee re- 
vealed the fact that Col. Roosevelt's campaign collectors in 1904 
"struck" the Standard Oil Company for a contribution of 
$100,000 and got it. Later when there was a stringency in the 
funds to conduct the campaign, they "struck" the Standard Oil 
Company for an additional $150,000. This trust refused to give 
the additional sum. It was told that it was making a mistake, 
and the events afterwards proved that it did, because immediately 

51 



52 THE NAKED TRUTH 

after election, under the order of President Eoosevelt, suit was 
brought against the Standard Oil Company and it was vigorously 
prosecuted. From the time it refused to contribute the needed 
$150,000 more it became a very "bad trust." 

It was shown by the evidence before the Senate investigating 
committee that J. P. Morgan of the Steel Trust was asked for 
$100,000 and he contributed that amount. It was shown that 
Morgan was asked for an additional $50,000 and promptly "came 
across with the needful." What happened to Morgan? Was he 
prosecuted like the Standard Oil Company? Oh, no. His part- 
ner, Robert Bacon, who also contributed $10,000, was appointed 
by President Roosevelt, Secretary of State. He was afterwards 
appointed Minister to France. Herbert Satterlee, a son-in-law of 
Morgan, was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position 
formerly held by Roosevelt himself. He has since been indicted 
by the Taft administration. 

The Steel Trust, with Morgan at its head, was afterward 
allowed to absorb the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company and clean 
up a handsome profit of $60,000,000. The Steel Trust was also 
shielded from prosecution until President Taft pressed the suit 
against it. Yet Col. Roosevelt tells us on the stand before the 
Senate investigating committee that nobody ever received any 
favors on account of their contributions, and Roosevelt is not only 
an honorable man, but the creator of the Ananias Club, and its 
honored President. 

George W. Perkins, indicted in the insurance scandal, the 
organizer of the Harvester Trust, the guiding genius of that 
institution, who is also prominently identified with the Steel Trust, 
contributed liberally to Roosevelt's campaign in 1904. The official 
record shows that he first contributed $100,000, next $25,000. 
Later he added $100,000 more, and then again he contributed 
$30,000, and still later $5,000 more, making a grand total of 
$260,000. Do you wonder that he is now Roosevelt's political 
manager ? 

What happened to Perkins? When President Roosevelt's 
Attorney-General started a suit against the Harvester Trust and 
Perkins served notice that if the administration was going to press 
the suit he would "fight," what was done? President Roosevelt 
called off the suit against the Harvester Trust, and yet Roosevelt 



THE NAKED TRUTH 53 

said on the stand before the Senate investigating committee that 
no contributors received any favors. 

I wish to call your attention to the fact that the official list 
of contributors taken from the books of the late Cornelius N. 
Bliss, who was treasurer of the Republican National Committee in 
1904, was produced before the Senate investigating committee by 
the assistant treasurer at the Western headquarters, Mr. Elmer 
Dover. I have this official list here in my hand, as it was pub- 
lished in the New York Sun, October 9th, 1912, and this list con- 
tains the names of all contributors of sums over $100. 

This list shows that Archbold and Rogers contributed for the 
Standard Oil Company to the Roosevelt campaign fund of 1904 
$100,000, precisely as charged by Judge Parker in 1904, and as 
sworn to by Archbold on the stand before the Senate investigating 
committee. It shows also that Morgan contributed $100,000, 
precisely as sworn to by Assistant Treasurer Sheldon, and as sworn 
to afterwards by jVIorgan himself. 

It shows, as Morgan stated on the stand, that he later con- 
tributed $50,000 more, and on the list it is put down as follows : 
J. P. Morgan & Co., additional, $50,000. 

It also shows that W. Emlen Roosevelt contributed $50,000 
and that other members of the Roosevelt family contributed. One 
item reads as follows : 

T. Roosevelt & Sons, $500. 

It also shows that George J. Gould contributed $100,000 
exactly as sworn to by Assistant Treasurer Sheldon. This record 
further shows that Edward H. Harriman contributed $100,000 
sometime before he collected and contributed the $250,000 "slush 
fund," which has been the subject of so much controversy. The 
additional $50,000 contributed by Morgan was a part of the Harri- 
man "slush fund," so was the additional $50,000 contributed by 
Harriman, and the $50,000 contributed by Frick of the Steel Trust. 
James H. Hyde, of insurance scandal fame, "came across" at the 
same time with $25,000, having given $25,000 before, making a 
total of $50,000. 

Another insurance magnate, John F. Dryden, just to give 
emphasis to social justice, chipped in $50,000. The Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company passed into Col. Roosevelt's "hat" two contribu- 
tions of $25,000 each, making a total of $50,000. Other railroad 



54 THE NAKED TRUTH 

companies and other trusts poured out their contributions with a 
lavish hand. 

In the interest of the truth of history and for the purpose of 
presenting to the people concrete evidence, I wish to present a 
list of the contributors to the Roosevelt campaign fund of 1904 
copied from Treasurer Bliss's books and presented to the Senate 
investigating committee by Assistant Treasurer Elmer Dover, 
including those who contributed $100,000, $50,000, $30,000, 
$25,000, $20,000, $15,000 and $10,000. Those who contributed 
smaller sums I will omit. Many of the contributors on the list 
afterwards contributed smaller sums, but they are so insignificant 
in comparison with the larger ones that I will omit them. These 
contributions, however, will give the people a pretty accurate idea 
of how thoroughly and honestly Roosevelt was fighting the trusts. 
The list is as follows : 

George W. Perkins $100,000 

George J. Gould 100,000 

E. H. Harriman 100,000 

Standard Oil Co., per Archbold & Rogers 100,000 

G. W. Perkins 100,000 

J. P. Morgan & Co .,100,000 

Chauncey M. Depew 100,000 

John B. Clafiin 50,000 

Joseph Milbank 50,000 

W. Emlen Roosevelt 50,000 

Union League Club, Philadelphia 50,000 

J. P. Morgan & Co., "Additional" 50,000 

E. H. Harriman 50,000 

H. C. Frick (Steel Trust) 50,000 

C. S. Mellen, "Railroad" 50,000 

H. J. AVainwright 50,000 

G. W. Perkins 30,000 

John F. Dryden 25,000 

G. W. Perkins 25,000 

James H. Hyde 35,000 

(Some of the above last contributors made up the Harriman 
"slush fund" of $250,000.) 

G. Von L. Meyer 25,000 

S. F. Wainwright 25,000 



THE NAKED TEUTH 55 

Pennsylvania Railroad $ 25,000 

E. T. Stotesbury 25,000 

Pennsylvania Eailroad 25,000 

S. J. Wainwright 25,000 

E. T. Stotesbury 25,000 

" " " 25,000 

Robert Mather 25,000 

James H. Hyde 25,000 

John F. Dryden 25,000 

E. C. Lake 25,000 

E. T. Stotesbury 20,000 

Eoswell Miller 20,000 

J. W. Meyer 20,000 

S. J. Wainwright 20,000 

International Harvester Co., per Eichard Howes 20,000 

E. T. Stotesbury 20,000 

New Haven Eailroad, per H. W. Kendall 20,000 

James H. Scheff 16,000 

Mark A. Hanna's family 15,000 

James Speyer 10,000 

Clarence H. MacKay 10,000 

A. D. Juillard 10,000 

Whitelaw Eeid 10,000 

J. W. Dryden 10,000 

Andrew Carnegie 10,000 

Adolph Lewisohn 10,000 

J. Von L. Meyer 10,000 

Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association 10,000 

J. A' on L. Meyer 10,000 

" " " " 10,000 

Whitelaw Eeid 10,000 

W. Blumenthal, for Senator Piatt 10,000 

J. Von L. Meyer 10,000 

A. G. Smith, for Cuban Mail S. S. Co 10,000 

H. H. Eoger (Standard Oil) 10,000 

American Canning Co 10,000 

J. V. L. Meyer 10,000 

Union League of Philadelphia 10,000 

James Stillman 10,000 



56 THE NAKED TRUTH 

H. Mck. Twombcy $ 10,000 

E. T. Stotesbury 10,000 

Whitelaw Eeid 10,000 

Robert Bacon (Morgan's partner) 10,000 

The above figures show the friendly and intimate relations 
which Col. Roosevelt had with the "malefactors of great wealth," 
while feeding the people "sweetened wind" and denouncing the 
trusts. 

Greorge B. Cortelyou, who was formerly private secretary to 
Col. Roosevelt and who was at the head of the Bureau of Corpora- 
tions and had access to all their secrets, was made chairman of the 
Republican National Committee. Like the southern contests 
started by Roosevelt against the Taft delegates, he was put at the 
head of the committee 

"for psychological effect and as a move in praciical politics." 
He was placed there to "fry the fat" out of the corporations 
whose secrets he held in the hollow of his hand. The list shows 
that he made good. His chief must have been "dee-lighted." 

The evidence before the Senate investigating committee and 
the official list of contributors presented by Assistant Secretary 
Dover, all confirm the sworn testimony of Morgan, of Archbold, 
of Sheldon, of Odell and of the other witnesses. Judge Duell, who 
was Roosevelt's primary campaign manager in New York, also 
swore on the stand that he knew about the Standard Oil contribu- 
tion of $100,000. 

An examination of the evidence before the committee and an 
examination of the documents there presented shows clearly that 
all the oral testimony and the documentary evidence agree with 
and confirm all of the statements made by Harriman in his letters, 
by Gov. Odell on the stand, by Judge Parker in his campaign 
speeches and by the other witnesses relative to the trust contribu- 
tions to the Roosevelt campaign fund of 1904. The single excep- 
tion is the testimony of Roosevelt himself. 

The only way Roosevelt attempts to escape is by claiming that 
he did not know that the contributions were made. (Lorimer said 
the same thing.) What an innocent and ignorant man for such a 
wide-awake and brilliant citizen ! This is the first time in Roose- 
velt's history that he ever admitted that he did not know every- 
thing. If Col. Roosevelt was so innocent and so ignorant as he 



THE NAKED TRUTH 67 

pretends to be, if all these hundreds of thousands of dollars were 
being tossed into his campaign fund to corrupt the electorate and 
purchase for him the presidency and he knew nothing about it, 
then he is too ignorant and too unsophisticated to again be trusted 
with the presidency. If he should be elected President again it 
would be entirely within the bounds of possibility for these great 
trusts and corporations to buy up the whole government and run 
away with it while he was not looking. 

It will be remembered that in Harriman's now famous letter, 
written to his friend Webster, which was a confidential communi- 
cation to a personal friend, never intended for the public, which 
letter, therefore, told the absolute truth, Harriman referring to 
his "slush fund" of $250,000, declared that it 

Turned 50,000 votes in the State of New York alone, 
making a difference of 100,000 votes in the general result." 

In this connection I wish to say that Col. Eoosevelt on the 
stump has repeatedly declared that both of the old parties have 
become corrupt and that it was necessary to organize his so-called 
Progressive party, more commonly known as the "Bull Moose" 
party, in order to purify the political situation. This campaign 
slogan is echoed all over the country from the stump by his public 
speakers with a sort of religious frenzy. 

If it is necessary to purify our politics, and God knows that it 
is, after the revelations before the Senate investigating committee, 
relative to the Eoosevelt corruption fund in 1904, if politics are 
to be reformed and society is to be regenerated, if an era of social 
justice is to be ushered in, it would hardly seem the proper thing 
to select Eoosevelt as the head of such a movement for the purifi- 
cation of politics and the regeneration of society, because he is 
the very individual who was the head center and the beneficiary of 
the greatest carnival of political corruption which has been 
revealed in this country since the foundation of the republic. 

No candidate for the presidency in all our history received so 
many and so large contributions from wicked corporations as did 
Col. Eoosevelt in 1904. But this is only half the story. During 
his campaign for the presidential nomination on the Eepublican 
ticket, this year, there was another carnival of corruption equal to 
that of 1904, and in many respects its superior. It is safe to say 
that never in the history of this country has there been expended 



58 THE NAKED TRUTH 

such a corruption fund for any man for a nomination to the 
oflfice of President, as was expended in behalf of Col. Eoosevelt 
this year in a vain effort to buy for him the regular Eepublican 
nomination for President. 

At the recent hearing before the Senate investigating com- 
mittee there was some startling evidence. Dan R. Hanna of 
Ohio, indicted by the Taft administration, swore on the stand that 
be alone contributed to Roosevelt's primar}' fund in that state the 
sum of $177,000. Bill Flinn, of grafting contract fame, swore 
on the stand that he contributed for the same purpose in the state 
of Pennsylvania the enormous sum of $144,000. 

George W. Perkins, indicted in the insurance scandal, who 
contributed so liberally to the campaign in 1904, swore on the 
stand that he contributed the sum of $122,000 ; Frank A. Munsey 
of the magazine trust, who objects to paying the postage on his 
magazines and wants the people to pay it for him, swore on the 
stand that he contributed $118,000; Thomas W. Lawson, of muck- 
raking fame, is said to have contributed something like $200,000, 
to say nothing of the countless other contributions by trust mag- 
nates and indicted millionaires. 

It is generally conceded that $3,000,000 was expended in a 
vain effort to buy for Roosevelt the regular Republican nomina- 
tion for President, and right here I want to say that the greatest 
tribute to the integrity, the intelligence, the honesty and the 
virtue of the Republican party and to its patriotism in all its 
history, is the fact that it refused to sell the nomination to this 
political adventurer. It is a matter of common knowledge that no 
such amount of money was ever expended by the friends of any 
candidate of any party in this country for a presidential nomina- 
tion as was expended for Col. Roosevelt in his efforts to secure the 
regular Republican nomination. 

No other candidate ever had such a large fund expended for 
him while making a canvass for this, the highest and most digni- 
fied office within the gift of the American people. The candidacy 
of Roosevelt with its enormous corruption fund contributed by 
trust magnates, money sharks and indicted millionaires, is a 
nation-wide scandal and a burning disgrace. 

Every avenue of venality was explored, every mercenary elector 
and delegate, both black and white, were sought out and seduced. 



THE NAKED TRUTH 59 

every wicked political scheme which cunning could invent, hypo- 
crisy approve and dishonesty carry into effect was resorted to in 
behalf of this social, moral and political imposter, who in this 
campaign has become the willing "tool of the trusts" to defeat 
and punish a Republican President because he has dared to enforce 
the anti-trust law and indict the money sharks, who are plundering 
the people. 

No such carnival of political corruption has ever before been 
witnessed in any country since the fall of Rome. It was Burke who 
tells us: 

So was Rome destroyed by the disorders of continual 
elections, though those of Rome were sober disorders. 
They had nothing but faction, bribery, bread, and stage 
plays to debauch them. We have the inflammation of 
liquor superadded, a fury hotter than any of them. 
There the contest was only between citizens and citizens, 
yet Rome was destroyed by the frequency and charge of 
elections and monstrous expense of an unremitted court- 
ship to the people. 

I wish right here to answer one of the favorite arguments of 
Col. Roosevelt and his advocates and that is the one to the effect 
that he entered upon his candidacy in response to an "overwhel- 
ming public demand." Everybody who will take time to think 
will remember that when he first announced his candidacy it "fell 
flat." State after state was carried against him and public senti- 
ment was fast crystallizing in favor of President Taft. 

Roosevelf s opposition to Taft was one of the President's 
chief elements of strength. La Follette had beaten Roosevelt in 
Dakota; the situation was growing desperate. At this critical 
point the Steel Trust, the Harvester Trust and the millionaires 
who had been indicted by the Taft administration opened their 
"barrels." The first "dumped" their money into the State of 
Illinois, which is a Steel Trust state and which was never a 
progressive state. What happened? They succeeded in carrying 
the primaries for the third term candidate. They did the same 
thing in the State of Pennsylvania, which has never been a 
progressive state, and which is also a Steel Trust state. They did 
the same thing in the State of New Jersey, which is another Steel 
Trust state and which never has been a progressive state. They 
did the same thing in the State of Massachusetts, which is a con- 



60 THE NAKED TRUTH 

servative state, but their success in that state was more limited 
because it was not under the domination of the Steel or Har- 
vester trusts. 

I wish to call your attention right here to the fact that in 
all the primaries throughout the country Col. Roosevelt carried 
but a very few Republican primaries. He and his friends have 
talked loudly about how he swept the primaries, but what primaries 
did he sweep? Certainly not Republican primaries, but general 
primaries, in which all classes of voters were permitted to vote. 
With an immense corruption fund contributed by trusts and 
millionaires, he carried the primaries by securing the support of 
the "floaters" of all political parties. The "floaters" of all parties 
when they are arraigned on one side with the trusts' "sugar 
barrel" for bait can easily carry any primary. It is quite another 
thing, however, to carry a clean Republican primary, where only 
Republicans are permitted to vote. 

It was Taft who carried the Republican primaries and Roose- 
velt who carried the general primaries under that sanctified presi- 
dential preference primary, which were designed to open the door 
for the use of the money contributed by the "interests" which were 
so potent, though "invisible," during Roosevelt's administration, 
but which influence was made visible by the investigation before 
the Senate investigating committee by the showing up of their 
enormous campaign contributions. 

Col. Roosevelt is a very cunning politician and the cleverest 
demagogue of any age. He laid his plans with great care and 
executed them with consummate skill. First the agents of the 
trusts, working through the discarded and discredited political 
bosses, made a canvass in every county in the states where primaries 
were being held, paid out their money, made their arrangements to 
buy up the primaries and after the plans were all carefully laid and 
the situation was "cinched" to "rake in the floaters" of all parties. 
Then the heroic Colonel would rush into the state a day or two 
before the primaries and make a few fiery speeches and fill the 
air with noise, denunciation and eloquence. Then when the pri- 
mary was over and the "floaters" had been delivered to the moral 
reformer, he and his friends would annoimce with joyous acclama- 
tions that it was another uprising of the people which demonstrated 
the great personal popularity of the third term candidate. 



THE NAKED TRUTH 61 

This was the finest "bimco game" ever worked on the American 
people and on the Republican party, but it did not succeed; it was 
blocked by the courage, intelligence and patriotism of the Republi- 
can delegates at Chicago. In regard to how the Roosevelt primar- 
ies were carried and in respect to the methods used 1 wish to 
quote a leading editorial in the New York World, as follows: 

A CROOKED PRIMARY. 

"If you are a Democrat and wish to vote for Roosevelt 
or Taft, you can do so unless now enrolled as a Demo- 
crat." 

This information was circulated throughout Massa- 
chusetts Sunday by a newspaper owned by Frank A. 
Munsey, who is helping to finance the Roosevelt third- 
term campaign, 

"Remember, you don't have to be enrolled in any 
party to vote at this primary." 

This information was circulated throughout Massa- 
chusetts in the form of paid advertisements in the leading 
newspapers, the advertisements being signed by the 
"Massachusetts Roosevelt Committee." 

Boston is a Democratic city. In 1904 Parker had 
8,000 plurality over Roosevelt in Suffolk County. In 1908 
Taft carried it by 2,500 over Bryan, but the Democratic 
candidate for Governor had a plurality of more than 
10,000 over Draper. In 1911 Foss's plurality over Froth- 
ingham in the county was nearly 22,000. 

Nevertheless, the Republican vote in the Republican 
primaries in Boston yesterday exceeded the Democratic 
vote by approximately 9,000. 

How much of this discrepancy was due to Demo- 
cratic indifference? How much to Democratic participa- 
tion in the Republican primaries at the urgent invitation 
of the Roosevelt managers? 

Of what moral or political or legal value is a Repub- 
lican primary in which Democrats can vote, or a Demo- 
cratic primary in which Republicans can vote? — New 
York World. 

Not only Democrats, but Socialists, Anarchists, Prohibition- 
ists and men of all parties and men of no parties voted in these 
primaries. 

Notwithstanding all these crooked and corrupt primaries, 
notwithstanding all the "trust tainted" money contributed to buy 
the Republican nomination for Roosevelt, notwithstanding the fact 



6« THE NAKED TRUTH 

that nearly all of the money expended was contributed by indicted 
trust magnates and millionaires, who were either indicted by the 
Taft administration or had been previously indicted for violating 
the law, yet we are told that this new third party movement is a 
sort of a religious movement, and Col. Roosevelt himself tells us 
that as its leader he is fighting with "The Army of the Lord at 
Armageddon." 

Was there ever such sacrilege in a civilized nation? Was 
there ever such effrontery? Was there ever such an insult to 
religion ? The army of the Lord has never yet been led by pledge- 
breaking, affidavit-repudiating commanders and indicted generals. 

No, my good Bull Moose friends, do not deceive yourselves, 
you are not fighting the battle of the Lord at Armageddon or any- 
where else. You are fighting the battle of the most cunning, the 
most unscrupulous and the most dangerous demagogue who has 
ever annoyed and atfiicted an enlightened and civilized nation, with 
a dictator's ambition, since Caesar reigned and Napoleon fell. 

I have proved by unanswerable and unimpeachable evidence 
that Col. Eoosevelt and his friends through the instrumentality of 
fraudulent, trumped-up contests tried to steal control of the Re- 
publican Convention and therefore they tried to steal the nomina- 
tion for Col. Roosevelt. I have already quoted a leading editorial 
from the New York Times, which boldly states that Col. Roosevelt 
and his friends entered into a conspiracy, first to steal the nom- 
ination and then to buy it. I want to submit here as evidence an 
afiidavit of a colored minister to prove that Roosevelt and his 
friends were trying to buy the nomination. Everybody at the 
Chicago Convention knows that this was true. They know that 
there were millions behind Col. Roosevelt. They know that Roose- 
velt's friends made the boast that they would have the convention 
at any cost. They also know that the scheme was to buy a few 
crooked delegates on every delegation possible and after they had 
secured enough to give them control of the convention then at the 
psychological moment the great moral reformer was to perform his 
stunt of stampeding the convention and the stampede was to be 
led by the purchased delegates, who were to break away from their 
delegations and with righteous proclamations declare for Roose- 
velt. Upon this point I want to submit the following facts from 
the New York Times of June 18th, 1912. All of the other papers 



THE NAKED TRUTH 63 

published the same information. The statement in the New 
York Times is as follows : 

MORE NEGROES TELL OF BRIBE OFFERS 

MAKE AFFIDAVIT THAT BOLTEE TO ROOSEVELT OFFERED THEM 
MONEY TO JOIN HIM 

On the eve of the opening of the Republican National Convention, 
where the first test of strength between the followers of President 
Taft and Col. Roosevelt is bound to come, the Taft campaign managers 
are receiving additional evidence that the promoters of the Roosevelt 
boom are seeking to buy the Presidential nomination for the Colonel 
by corrupting negro delegates from the South. 

The disclosures which have been made in this connection have 
already aroused the entire country. To-night two affidavits were given 
out, one of these from a minister of the Gospel, who declared that he 
had been approached by Charles S. Banks, the Mississippi negro dele- 
gate whose name has figured so conspicuously in earlier disclosures, 
alleging corruption or attempt at corruption of negro delegates pledged 
to President Taft by agents of the Roosevelt boom. 

The first of the affidavits was made by the Rev. James W. Shum- 
port, D. D., Presiding Elder in the Meridian, Miss., Methodist Episcopal 
Church Conference. Dr. Shumport is a delegate to the convention. 
Here is his affidavit: 

STATE OF ILLINOIS, City of Chicago, ss.: 

On Thursday, June 13, 1912, at the Coliseum in the 
City of Chicago, 111., I was met by Charles Banks of Missis- 
sippi, and a delegate from that State to the Republican 
National Convention, who asked me to call at his house, 
2959 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. I went to his house at 5 
o'clock the same afternoon, and when I entered his room 
he asked everybody to leave except me. He began the con- 
versation by asking me if I had ever seen a thousand- 
dollar bill. I replied that I had not. He then put his hand 
In his pocket and brought out a big roll of bills. The out- 
side bill was one of the denomination of |1,000. It was the 
first I had ever seen. The roll of bills was nearly all gold 
certificates. 

He then wanted to know how much I would ask to go 
with him and support Mr. Roosevelt. I told him I would 
not be bought; that I had not come to Chicago to sell my- 
self. He then said that all or a majority of the delegates 
were going to Roosevelt, who would be nominated, and 
that Mr. Roosevelt would make him the referee in Missis- 
sippi in connection with all the Federal offices. I repeated 



64 THE NAKED TRUTH 

that I would not be a party to such a transaction, and 
then excused myself. There was no further conversation 
between us. 

Dated this seventeenth day of June, 1912. 

J. M. SHUMPORT, 
Presiding Elder Meridian Conference M. E. Church. 
Witnesseth: ANDREW GEDDES, 
J. T. MONTGOMERY. 
Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Notary 
Public, June 17th, 1912. 

M. BELLE CARNAHAN, 

Notary Public. 
A similar affidavit, executed by A. Buckley, also a negro delegate 
from Mississippi, charges that Banks offered him $300 to "switch." 

—New York Times, June 18, 1912. 



ROOSEVELT AS A PROGRESSIVE 

Colonel lloosevelt is the greatest reactionary that has ever 
appeared in American politics. 

He stands for the initiative, the referendiun, the recall and 
the overthrow of the American constitution. 

He stands for the destruction of our modern American system 
of representative government, which is the best and most progres- 
sive government in the world. 

He stands for the recall of judicial decisions, for making the 
confusion of the multitude the final interpreter of the law, and the 
passion of the populace the final arbiter of justice. In this en- 
lightened age he wants to restore the kind of a court that sentenced 
Christ to the cross. 

He stands for every heresy of Populism and of Socialism. He 
stands for a "pure democracy," which is the oldest aud most 
primitive form of government known to man. He is trying to 
carry us back to the diseases, disorders and deformities of the 
primitive political state. 

He stands for the rule of the people by ignorant impulse and 
blind hysteria instead of by reason, judgment and common sense. 

He thinks the way to be a progressive is to make "secret 
deals" with the trusts to finance his political campaigns and then 
hurl fiery words and phrases into the air and fill the heavens with 
noise to attract attention and fool the people into believing that 
his words are deeds. 

Eoosevelt stands for the government fixing prices on com- 
modities. So does the Steel Trust, providing Eoosevelt is the 
government. In this he is again the great reactionary. 

He wants to carry us back to the time when the kings fixed 
the prices on commodities. Back to industrial barbarism. "We 
find in the industrial dark ages large numbers of statutes, which 
put restrictions of every kind on the freedom of the individual citi- 
zen ; but especially on his right to choose his own field of labor and 
his right to make his own prices for his labor and merchandise. 

Statutes after statutes were passed upon this subject. The 
prices were fixed on all kinds of commodities and labor, and the 

65 



66 THE NAKED TRUTH 

result was commercial paralysis, political chaos and social disorder. 
Extra sessions of legislatures had to be called to repeal these 
idiotic statutes and special decrees had to be put in force to relieve 
the people from the bondage of these absurd and unworkable laws. 
Eoosevelt, the real reactionary, wants to carry us back in this 
country to those industrial days. Even the pilgrims when they first 
landed in Boston tried out these wild theories and raw methods. 
They fixed prices on labor and commodities. At this time in 
Boston it was ordered that 

The carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawers and 
thatchers should not take above two shillings a day, nor 
any man should give more, under pain of ten shillings to 
taker and giver 

and "sawers" were restricted as to prices they might take for 
"boards." 

Roosevelt advocates all these old reactionary policies and is 
trying to carry us back to the doctrines that originated in the 
industrial dark ages, while posing before the country as the 
champion Progressive. 

In his work entitled "State Control," Albert Stickney, when 
reciting these old English statutes and similar statutes in this 
country, discussing their final repeal, says: 

Experience shows, in times recent as well as ancient, 
that any attempt to interfere by legislation, or by the arm 
of the law, with the citizen's full freedom of contract, in 
fixing the price of his own labor or merchandise, either 
singly or in combination with others, is wholly needless, 
and is productive only of evil. — State Control, Page 5. 

Continuing this discussion and summing up his conclusions 
as to the impracticability and the impossibility of the government 
fixing prices, Stickney says : 

All human experience thus far conclusively demon- 
strates that the accomplishment of this end must be left 
to the parties interested in each separate transaction of 
sale, the buyer and the seller. They know, and they 
alone know, the facts which properly enter into the 
decision of all questions of price. In the decision of 
every question of price there are always two controlling 
elements: they are (1) the needs of the buyer, and (2) 
the needs of the seller. Those two elements determine 



THE NAKED TEUTH 67 

the question of price — and determine it conclusively — 
in every transaction of sale. Those two elements can be 
justly estimated by only two persons in the whole world — 
the high contracting parties. They are the only isersons 
who are in a position to weigh those two elements. It is 
to the interest of every one, of the buyer, of the seller, 
and of "the public," that the decision of these questions 
of value and price shall be left to the parties to the 
transaction, and that, in making that decision, those two 
parties shall have the fullest contractual freedom. — 
"State Control," Page 145. 

The American people should begin to read history, they 
should begin to enlighten themselves, they should cease to follow 
the Cleons of our day. The Eoosevelts have existed in all ages, 
they are as old as selfishness and perverted ambition. Away back 
in Athens they had a pure democracy and they had Eoosevelts in 
that day, who posed as the only friends of the people. Aristotle 
describes one of them as follows : 

After the death of Pericles, Nicias, who subsequently 
fell in Sicily, appeared as leader of the aristocracy, and 
Cleon as that of the people. The latter seems more than 
anyone else, to have been the cause of the corruption of 
the democracy by his wild undertakings; and he was the 
first to use unseemly shouting and coarse abuse on the 
Bema (platform) and to harangue the people with his 
coat girt up short about him, whereas all his predecessors 
had spoken decently and in order. 

Eoosevelt, the fake-seller, is the prototype of Cleon, the 
leather-seller. 

Aristotle, in discussing the demagogues of that time, refers to 
two of them as follows : 

Both of these persons were subsequently condemned 
to death; for the people, even if they are deceived for a 
time, in the end generally come to detest those who have 
beguiled them into any unworthy action. After Cleophon 
the popular leadership was occupied successively by the 
men who chose to talk the biggest and pander the most 
to the tastes of the majority, with their eyes fixed only on 
the interests of the moment. — Aristotle in Athenian Con- 
stitution, Page 53. 
What a vivid picture of our modern Demagogues ! 



TAFT AS A PROGRESSIVE 

President Taft stands for his country and its flag, for the 
constitution and the courts, for liberty regulated by law. 

He stands for an adequate army and an efficient navy. He 
stands for protection to American industries, to the American 
farmers and to the American workingman. He stands against 
populism and socialism, against that progressiveness which pro- 
gresses backward to a pure democracy, which would carry us back 
to that political midnight, which preceded the dawn of the Ameri- 
can Eepublic. 

He stands against the initiative, the referendum and the 
recall, because he knows that these fallacies are as old as human 
history and were conceived in ignorance of the science of govern- 
ment and of politics, and were bom in the throes of hysteria and 
tumult. They were all tried out and condemned ages ago and 
were discarded by enlightened statesmanship and advancing civiliza- 
tion. 

He stands against social disorder, political chaos and civic 
anarchy. 

He believes in the rule of the people by ripe deliberation and 
right reason. 

He thinks the way to be a progressive is to secure the enact- 
ment of constructive legislation and vigorously enforce the laws 
of the land against big and little trusts alike and then restore 
business stability and prosperity, all of which he has splendidly 
done. 

President Taft is the most sane, consistent and safe progres- 
sive in this country and the American people should stand by him 
and support him. 

I wish to call your attention to an eminent authority upon 
this point. In speaking of William Howard Taft, the late Repub- 
lican, Col. Theodore Eoosevelt, in a letter to Conrad Cohrs used 
these emphatic words : 

The true friend of reform, the true foe of abuse, is 
the man who steadily perseveres in righting wrongs, but 
whose character and training are such that he never 

69 



70 THE NAKED TRUTH 

promises what he cannot perform, that he always, a little 
more than makes good, by what he does promise and 
that, while steadily advancing, he never permits himself 
to be led into foolish excesses, which would damage the 
very cause he champions. In Mr. Taft we have a man 
who combines all these qualifications to a degree which 
no other man in our public life, since the Civil War, has 
surpassed. 

This is the tribute paid to William Howard Taft by Col. 
Theodore Roosevelt, when Roosevelt's mind was clear, his reason 
sound, his heart honest and when his ambition for a third term 
had not yet prostituted his judgment. 



WOODROW WILSON 

Governor Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate for 
president, is a college professor, an impractical theorist, and he 
has had no experience in statecraft or public alfairs. He is a free 
trader by nature, instinct and education. He was born in the 
State of Virginia, where in his early years he imbibed the free 
trade atmosphere of the South, and then he entered the school 
room, where theories that will not work are prolific. 

He has had a great deal to say about the tariff in this cam- 
paign, but his ignorance of the subject is lamentable. For in- 
stance, in one of his speches he said that meat was selling in Xew 
York for 29 cents per pound and in London for 20 cents per 
pound and that the difference of 9 cents per pound between New 
York and London was caused by the tariff on meat. This college 
professor did not seem to know that the tariff on meat is only II/2 
cents per pound, and if he had told the people this it would have 
been rather difficult for him to explain how a tariff of li/^ cents 
per pound could raise the price of meat 9 cents per pound. Do 
you not see how easy it is for a simple fact to make a fool of a 
college professor's theory? 

JOB E. HEDGES 

Job E. Hedges, the Eepublican candidate for governor, is a 
prominent and successful lawyer, an able, broad-minded business 
man, who has demonstrated his executive capacity and his fitness 
to discharge the responsible duties of governor. 

Mr. Hedges is a student of the science of government and of 
politics, is well versed in history, is acquainted with all the theories 
of government, past and present, and has the intelligence and 
sound judgment to accept what is good and reject what is false and 
unsound. Therefore, he is admirably equipped by knowledge, by 
experience and ability to make one of the best governors the State 
of iSTew York has ever had. 

WILLIAM SULZER 

Mr. Sulzer, the Democratic candidate for governor, has had 
an honorable and somewhat prominent public career as Speaker 

71 



72 THE NAKED TRUTH 

of the Assembly, as leader of the Democratic minority in that 
body and as congressman, but he is an active member of Tammany 
Hall and has been for the past twenty-two years, and if elected 
governor he will be the first Tammany governor the state has had 
in a half century. 

Gov, Dix was an upstate man who was not a member of Tam- 
many Hall and yet everybody knows that he surrendered to the 
dictation of Tammany Hall and Tammany has been conducting 
the government at Albany for the past two years. Could the peo- 
ple expect anything better from Sulzer, who is a member of the 
Tammany organization? To expect Sulzer to break away from 
Tammany and its influences when his future advancement would 
depend upon that organization's support is extremely absurd. 

OSCAR S. STRAUS 

The Hon. Oscar S. Straus, the Bull Moose candidate for 
governor, is the Tallyrand of American politics. He served as 
Minister to Turkey under President Cleveland, a Democratic pres- 
ident, and he served in the cabinet of President Roosevelt, a 
Republican president, and he applied for a position imder Presi- 
dent Taft and was "turned down," and that is the reason he is 
now the Bull I\Ioose candidate for governor. 

]Mr. Straus seems to have no fixed political principles or per- 
manent convictions and he is ready to accept office from the hands 
of any party or any aggregation of citizens, without regard to 
whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Bull Moose. To ob- 
tain an ofiice seems to be his highest ambition. Honor is his goal 
and he cares not from whom it comes. 

Mr. Straus says that he is the candidate of the "peepul ;" that 
his only boss will be the "peepul." This sounds fine and it has 
been the favorite argument of the demagogue ever since he emerged 
from the cave. Let us see what Mr. Straus really thinks of the 
people and how competent he thinks they are to conduct the gov- 
ernment and manage its affairs. 

Speaking of the Hebrew Commonwealth in his book written 
some time ago, when he was not a candidate for office and when he 
was not trying to flatter and fool the people, Mr. Straus said : 
The lessons of the decline of this republic are as 
valuable and instructive as that of its development. It 



THE NAKED TRUTH 73 

was not subverted by force nor by the tricks or cunning 
devices of unscrupulous leaders, but by the people exer- 
cising their democratic prerogative, the right of choice to 
set up over themselves such form of government as they 
might elect. — Straus, Hebrew Commonwealth, Page 116. 

This Bull Moose candidate for governor, having left the 
Democratic party, then the Republican party, and having now 
espoused the cause of the Bull Moose party, stands on its crazy- 
quilt platform, and has turned his back upon all of liis past teach- 
ings and is now coursing after "strange gods." In proof of this 
we quote from Mr. Straus as follows : 

History is to a nation what experience is to an indi- 
vidual, and just as a wise man will guide himself by 
"the lamp" of experience, so will a patriotic people run 
not after strange gods, but will direct their course under 
the guidance of the philosophy of their own past. — Straus 
on Roger Williams, Page 215. 

Straus is now following the "golden calf of temporar}^ expedi- 
ency," but in his book, speaking of the importance of the stabil- 
ity and permanence of governmental policies, he says : 

Let us have a care that we do not In the years of our 
prosperity prostrate ourselves before the golden calf of 
temporary expediency, and through false lights violate 
the universal principles of justice and liberty underlying 
our American institutions. — Straus on Roger Williams, 
Pages 2-5. 
Mr. Straus is going up and down the state telling what he 
will do if the people will elect him governor. Among other things 
he says that if the people will make him governor, he will 
Stamp out tuberculosis in the State of New York. 
Think of it. Here is a candidate for public office who goes out 
before the people and as an inducement for their votes he promises 
that if they will elect him to a public office, he will perform the 
miracles of Christ and heal the sick. 

If Mr. Straus had been nominated for president instead of 
governor, he would then have gone up and down the country prom- 
ising the voters that if they would only elect him president he 
would raise the dead and give us all the blessed privilege of having 
a reunion here on earth with our departed friends. 

Is it not time that an intelligent public laughed such moving 
picture statesmen off the stage? 



THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

The Eepublican party was born in a struggle for Imman free- 
dom and was the child of the enlightened conscience of the natioa 

It was rocked in the cradle of patriotism and nursed to posi- 
tion and power by the eternal principles of right and justice. The 
Eepublican party's first great achievement was the preservation of 
the Union, by the suppression of secession and treason. The Ee- 
publican party's next great achievement was the extension of 
freedom and the franchise to 4,000,000 slaves. Since that time 
the Eepublican party's achievements have been the recorded achieve- 
ments of our common country. 

The Eepublican party is the party of Liberty; it is the party 
of Honest Money; it is the party of an Honest Ballot. 

Liberty is the heart of this Eepublic; honest money is the 
blood that courses through its veins, and an honest ballot is its 
breath of life. 

Eemove from the pages of history the achievements of the 
Eepublican party for the last half century and there would be but 
little left to shed luster and glory on the American name. 

The Eepublican party with such a record, the party which has 
been the greatest human agency the world has ever known for 
the promotion of the cause of good government, the development of 
industrial progress and the advancement of civilization, during the 
past fifty years, can never be destroyed by a disappointed political 
demagogue marching under the banner of party treason. Let me 
call your attention to an eminent authority on this subject. 
Harper's Weekly, one of the most influential journals of high 
standing in this country, which is supporting Governor Wilson, 
the Democratic nominee for president, in a recent editorial, com- 
menting upon the political situation, said: 

The Republican party is not dead. Though seeming- 
ly sleeping for the moment, it will soon be as wide 
awake and determined to win as ever before in its suc- 
cessful career. And it is still the strongest, most 
compact, best equipped and most skillfully directed poli- 
ical organization the world has ever known. 

The Eepublican party may be temporarily divided by the 

75 



76 THE NAKED TRUTH 

influence of Eoosevelt, a former president, who owes all his prom- 
inence, power and prestige to the Eepublican party, but this 
apostate will never be able to kill that party, he will only succeed 
in killing his own name in history. 

The party of Lincoln and Seward, Grant and Conkling, Blaine 
and Garfield, Arthur and Hoar, Harrison and Hale, McKinley 
and Reed, Black and Root, Lodge and Taft will continue to live 
and prosper, and it will continue to have the support of the heart, 
brain and conscience of the American people, long after the hys- 
teria and confusion of the hour have passed away. The party 
which has written every important page in American history since 
the Civil War will continue to live, and notwithstanding the 
noise of the demagogues, and the bellowing of the "Big Bull 
Moose," the political wrecks — the disloyal wrecks — strewn along 
the political highway, from VanBuren and Greeley, down to date, 
all bear eloquent and conclusive testimony to the fact that in this 
moral, this civilized, this enlightened age, party treason has not 
yet become a virtue and party loyalty has not yet becoine a crime, 
and they never will become so, as long as reason is the torch that 
lights and patriotism is the motive that moves mankind to political 
action. 



REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 

The Ancients had never discovered a workable system of. 
government between the extremes of a pure democracy which was 
a failure and an aristocracy or a monarchy, both of which cur- 
tailed individual liberty and deprived the great mass of the people 
of a controlling voice in the affairs of their government. 

All the authorities appear to be agreed that there is no 
prototype for what seems to us such a very simple thing 
as representation, representative government, among the 
Greeks or the Romans, or any of the older civilizations 
of which we have knowledge. — Stimson, Popular Law- 
Making, Page 5. 

The statesmen who founded the American Republic were the 
first practical exponents and founders of a free representative 
democracy, which has proved its adaptability to any and every ex- 
tent of territory and population, and which at the same time, 
guards and protects individual liberty and gives the people a con- 
trolling voice in the affairs of their government. 

Madison laid down the accurate law of representation in a 
democracy when he said : 

The representation should be large enough to guard 
against the cabals of the few and small enough to guard 
against the confusion of the multitude. 

The founders of the republic having the wisdom and experi- 
ence of all the ages to guide them, knew that a pure democracy 
had neither stability nor reliability, because it gave a free rein to 
the emotions and passions of men. They knew that an aristocracy 
and a monarchy had stability and reliability but was a tyranny, and 
so they aimed to found a government which had all the good 
features of a democracy, which left the final control of the govern- 
ment in the hands of the people, but which at the same time pos- 
sessed the efficiency and stability of a monarchy, and so they 
planned to make the people themselves the monarch, with certain 
necessary checks, balances and limitations, the same to be fixed in a 
written constitution. They said in effect: 

We will engraft representation upon democracy and 
thereby we will arrive at a system of stable government 

77 



78 THE NAKED TRUTH 

capable of embracing and confederating all the various 
interests of society and every extent of territory and 
population. By having the people in every section elect 
representatives to a legislature or a convention, we thus 
provide by secondary means a common center where all 
the parts of society can unite and concentrate the experi- 
ence, energy and wisdom necessary to the interests of 
the parts and of the whole. And thereby we place the 
government in a constant state of order and maturity. 

This is the central idea of our American representative sys- 
tem of government, and it has been the best form of government 
and has proved the greatest success of any government ever insti- 
tuted among men. The f ramers of our system of government knew 
that the people in every locality, in small civil divisions like towns 
and wards, could easily select the best men for public office because 
tbey would choose them from their friends, neighbors and promin- 
ent citizens. They realized that in this way they could pick out 
men of character and ability, whose fitness for the offices which 
they sought would be known to every voter in the community. 
Therefore, they knew that the people would have within easy 
reach the necessary information in regard to candidates, as to theij 
standing and ability and their qualifications, and by having this 
personal knowledge they could intelligently select, in their imme- 
diate community, the best men for public office. But they knew 
that when the territory within which the people were called upon 
to act was extended beyond the small civil divisions of a town or a 
ward, that when the territory was extended beyond the personal 
acquaintances of the voters and the candidates appear beyond that 
sphere for public offices, then the voters would be deprived of this 
intimate personal knowledge and acquaintance and the necessary 
accurate information, and therefore they would be obliged to guess 
at the qualifications of the candidates. In order to remedy this de- 
fect, in order to overcome this weakness, which had led to the 
ruin of all the ancient democracies, the American statesmen added 
the feature of representation to a democracy. They said in effect: 
The people can select local officers intelligently, 
wisely and well, and therefore they can select local 
representatives in the same way, and so we will pro- 
vide a system of representation, which will allow the 
people to select representatives in their own immediate 
vicinity from among their best and most prominent 



THE NAKED TRUTH 79 

citizens, who are best qualified by ability and exi)erience 
to act for the people beyond the sphere, beyond the 
territory, where they can obtain the necessary, reliable 
and correct information to act for themselves and by 
doing this we will enable the people to pick out men of 
experience, character, wisdom and statesmanship, wher- 
ever they can be found, and center them in a represen- 
tative body, a legislature or convention, where they can 
act for the public good. 

Upon this point Madison, speaking of our representative 
republic, said: 

The two great points of difference between a Demo- 
cracy and a Republic are: 

First, the delegation of the government, in the latter, 
to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; second- 
ly, the greater sphere of country over which the latter 
may be extended. 

The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, 
to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them 
through the medium of a choice body of citizens, whose 
wisdom may best discern the true interests of their coun- 
try, and whose patriotism and love of justice will least 
likely sacrifice it to temporary or partial consideration. 
Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the 
public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the 
people, will be more consonant to the public good than if 
pronounced by the people themselves, convened for that 
purpose. — The Federalist, Letter X. 
Writing upon the same subject, Jefferson said : 

For let it be agreed that a government is Republican 
in proportion as every member composing it has equal 
voice in the direction of its concerns (not indeed in per- 
son, which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a 
city or a small township), but by representattives chosen 
by himself and responsible to him at short periods, and 
let us bring to the test of this canon every branch of our 
constitution. — Works, Vol. 15, Page 33. 
And again Jefferson said : 

I have stated that the constitutions of our several 
states vary more or less in some particulars, but there 
are certain principles in which all agree, and which all 
cherish as vitally essential to the protection of life, 
liberty, property and safety of the citizen. 

1. Freedom of religion, restricted only from acts 
of trespass on that of others. 



80 THE NAKED TRUTH 

2. Freedom of person, securing every one from 
imprisonment or other bodily restraint, but by the laws 
of the land. 

3. Trial by jury, the best of all safeguards for the 
person, the property and the fame of every individual. 

4. The exclusive right of legislation and taxation in 
the representatives of the people.— Works, Vol. 15, Page 
489. 

Writing upon the same subject Jay said: 

Nothing can be more fallacious than to found our 
political calculations on arithmetical principles. Sixty 
or seventy men may be more properly trusted with a 
given degree of power than six or seven. But it does 
not follow that 600 or 700 would be proportionately a 
better depository. And if we carry on the supposition 
to 6,000 or 7,000 the whole reasoning ought to be 
reversed. The truth is that in all cases a certain num- 
ber at least seems to be necessary to secure the benefits 
of free consultation and discussion, and to guard against 
too easy a combination for improper purposes; as, on 
the other hand, the number ought at most to be kept 
within a certain limit in order to avoid the confusion and 
intemperance of the multitude. In all very numerous 
assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion 
never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every 
Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian as- 
sembly would still have been a mob. — Federalist, Letter 
LIV. 
Thus was Roosevelt's theory of a pure democracy examined 
and discussed in the light of history and experience, and con- 
demned and discarded by Madison, Jefferson and Jay, as well as 
by all the other statesmen, when they founded this government and 
framed the Federal Constitution. Therefore, Roosevelt, in advo- 
cating a pure democracy, is progressing backward to that political 
midnight which preceded the dawTi of the American Republic. 

I am aware that Jefferson is represented as being the 
champion of democracy and it is constantly asserted that he 
favored a pure democracy. Nothing could be further from the 
truth. He favored the American system of Representative Demo- 
cracy. Those who represent Jefferson as believing in a pure or 
direct democracy, such as is advocated by Roosevelt and others 
today, are woefully ignorant of the teachings of Jefferson. 

I have already quoted from Jefferson, to the effect that it 



THE NAKED TRUTH 81 

is impracticable for the people to act directly beyond the limits of 
a "small township." I have again quoted Jefferson as declaring 
that the feature of a representative democracy is that it places: 

The exclusive right of legislation and taxation in 
the representatives of the people. 
I wish to again quote Jefferson as follows: 

That majority, then, has a right to depute represen- 
tatives, to the convention, and to make the constitution 
what they think will be the best for themselves. But 
how collect their voice? This is the real difficulty. If 
Invited by private authority, or country or district meet- 
ings, these divisions are so large that few will attend; 
and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely pronounced. 

Jefferson and Hamilton represented two different schools of 
statesmenship but it is well understood by informed students of 
our political history that they both agreed as to the impracticabil- 
ity of and the failure of a pure democracy and that they both 
advocated a representative republic as the cure for the evils of 
direct mass action. Again Jefferson said : 

The government of Athens, for example, was that of 
the people of one city making laws for the whole countiy 
subject to them. * * * These are not the doctrines 
of the present age. The equal rights of man, and the 
happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to 
be the only legitimate objects of government. Modem 
times have the signal advantage, too, of having discov- 
ered the only device by which these rights can be 
secured, to wit: government by the people, acting not in 
person, but by representatives chosen by themselves; 
that is to say, by every man of ripe years and sound mind, 
who either contributes by his purse or person to the sup- 
port of his country. — Vol. 15, Page 482. 

Then again speaking of the Ancients Jefferson said: 

They knew no medium between a democracy (the 
only pure Republic, but impractical beyond the limits of 
a town) and an abandonment of themselves to an aris- 
tocracy or a tyranny independent of the people. It seems 
not to have occurred that where the citzens cannot meet 
to transact their business in person, they alone have the 
right to choose the agents who shall transact it, and that 
in this way a Republican or popular governmentof the sec- 
ond grade of purity may be exercised over any extent of 



82 THE NAKED TRUTH 

country. The full experiment of a government demo- 
cratical, but representative, was and still is reserved for 
us. 

Thus it will be observed that Jefferson was a firm believer in 
the representative feature of our American system of government 
and that he argued with great force and unanswerable logic 
against a pure democracy, stating that it was impracticable beyond 
the "limits of a town/' and yet this is the kind of democracy now 
being advocated by our modern shallow demagogues, who see in 
such advocacy an opportunity to flatter and fool the people. 
"Direct legislation" and "direct nominations" and the hypocritical 
cant about "the rule of the people" like the advocacy of "free and 
unlimited coinage of silver" and "greenbackism" — the making of 
money by law, instead of working for it — and all the other count- 
less political fallacies and catch phrases of this character are only 
used by demagogues in an attempt to flatter, mislead and fool the 
people and obtain their votes for a public office, and those who 
resort to these arts are not the friends of the people but they are a 
menace to good government and to real progress. 

These political "fads" relative to the direct action of the 
people en masse are fallacies, which were tried out and proved 
failures ages ago and they have been condemned in the light of 
universal history and experience and by the enlightened states- 
manship of the civilized world and the attempt to revive them now, 
in this country, is a step backward. It is retrogression. It is a 
species of political atavism, which clearly indicates the approaching 
decline and decay of the American nation, unless the movement can 
be headed off by educating the people so that they wall reject these 
quack political nostrums and stand firm for our modern enlight- 
ened system of representative democracy, which has resulted in 
making this country the greatest nation in the world. 

The only evidence we now have that we are really politically 
diseased is the fact that we have produced a Eoosevelt, a La Follette 
and a Debs. They are the cancers on the fair face of our body 
politic. They are the malignant growths that are infusing social- 
istic poison into the heart and brain of the public and endangering 
the life of our representative institutions. 

I wish right here to call your attention to the fact that I 
stated in the beginning of my remarks that our modern office- 



THE NAKED TRUTH 83 

seeking demagogues do not study philisopny or statesmenship but 
that they read only yellow journals and muck-raking magazines. 
The proof of it is to be found, among other things, in their 
ignorance of the teachings of Jefferson, the author of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. They probably have never read his works, 
but if they have, it is evident that they lack comprehension. 

I want to take this opportunity to warn you, for your own 
interest, against giving these demagogues your confidence and sup- 
port. The time has come when in order to protect and preserve 
your country^s representative institutions and its constitution, you 
should begin to turn your attention to a study of your government 
and transfer your allegiance from demagogues to statesmen. Let 
me remind you that both history and experience teach us with 
unerring accuracy that there is only one short step between the 
"Demagogue and the Despot.'* 



THE CONSTITUTION 

The American Constitution was framed by the greatest 
statesmen ever assembled at a given time to foimd a government. 

The great English statesman, Gladstone, speaking of the 
American Constitution, said: 

It is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a 
given time by the brain and purpose of man. 

We have been pi-ogressing so fast in this countr}', we have 
been giving so much attention to industrial development and the 
building up of our great and glorious country and providing con- 
veniences and comforts for ourselves and families that we have not 
given much time to the study of our government an-i we have 
ceased to familiarize ourselves with the constitution. 

How many of you have given any attention and thought and 
study to our American system of representative government, and 
to a study of the constitution, which contains the guarantees of 
your personal rights and liberties? It is safe to say that most of 
you have had your minds so occupied with the business affairs of 
life that you have neglected to give this subject any study or seri- 
ous thought and careful consideration. This is not so strange, 
because not until recently has such thought, study and considera- 
tion been necessary. Not until recently has anybody in this 
countrj-- had the audacity to attack the virtues of our constitution 
and our American system of representative government. 

The first to make that attack was the Populist of the West, a 
few years ago. The Populist party came with a great noise, but 
it quietly died last summer when in the parlor of a Chicago hotel 
only eight delegates met to hold its national convention. The 
party is a memory, but its doctrines still flourish. They have 
been taken up by the Socialist party and by the demagogues, who 
call themselves insurgents in both parties and by the yellow jour- 
nals. They have all been embraced now by the Bull Moose party. 
The result is that the Populist's original attack upon the constitu- 
tion and upon our form of representative government is making 
considerable headway in many of the states. The manifestation of 
this Populistic movement is witnessed in direct primary nomina- 

85 



86 THE NAKED TRUTH 

tions, the initative, the referendum and the recall, all of -which 
have been adopted in some states and are being agitated in many 
others. The most conspicuous champion at the present time of 
these old, discarded and age-worn fallacies is Colonel Theodore 
Roosevelt. He is prominent on account of the fact that he has 
been president of the United States, and such prominence together 
with his natural ability gives him a wide influence. He has now 
become a menace to the American system of government and to 
the American Constitution. Therefore, I wish to call your atten- 
tion to the importance of maintaining our constitution, for the 
purpose of preserving your own individual rights and liberties. 

The one supreme issue in this campaign is the maintenance 
of our representative institutions and of the federal constitution. 
This issue transcends in importance all other issues, both state 
and national. 

Colonel Roosevelt, by his advocacy of the recall of judicial 
decisions, proposes to make the constitution a nullity and break 
down its guarantees to life, liberty and property and leave our 
rights and liberties, not protected by a written constitution but he 
proposes to submit them to the temporary whims of the community 
by having them passed upon by a majority vote. He holds that 
court decisions should be recalled by a majority vote and that such 
decisions should be the law, instead of the decisions of the courts. 
I wish to invite your attention to the first provision of the Bill of 
Rights, in the constitution, which reads as follows : 

Congress shall make no law respecting the establish- 
ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, 
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or 
the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. — Art. 
1 of the Bill of Rights. 

This provision of the constitution guarantees to every one the 
right to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science. No congress can take this right away from you. No 
majority can take this right away from you, in any community or 
in any state in the Union, because the people in their sovereign 
capacity, by this compact in the constitution, have recognized this 
right as a personal and inalienable right, which cannot be in- 
fringed upon by anybody, not by a majority of the voters, not by 



THE NAKED TRUTH 87 

any state legislature or by the Congress of the United States. 
And the people have established courts of justice to see to it that 
these individual rights and liberties shall be enforced so that each 
person in this country shall have the right, unmolested, to worship 
Grod in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience. 

Eemove this constitutional guaranty and what becomes of this 
individual religious liberty? Eemove the courts and how can the 
individual enforce his rights to such liberty? By leaving it to a 
majority? Suppose a majority are Presbyterians and they say 
the Methodists cannot worship. Suppose a majority are Baptists 
and they say the Catholics cannot worship. What becomes of 
your religious liberties? Have we so soon forgotten that religious 
persecution kept the horizon lurid with the fagot's flame for 
thousand years? Is there an intelligent man or woman in this 
audience who wants to submit their right to worship God in accord- 
ance with the dictates of their conscience to a majority vote? 
This is what Colonel Roosevelt's proposal leads to and he calls it 
progress. He is mistaken, and it is not the first time. Let me 
call your attention to another provision in the Bill of Rights, in 
our constitution. It reads as follows: 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches 
and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall 
issue but upon probable causes, supported by oath or 
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be 
searched and the persons or things to be seized. — Art. IV 
of the Bill of Rights. 

In this provision of the constitution, every person is protected 
against illegal and unlawful interference. He cannot be molested 
in his person or property or deprived of his effects without it being 
done in the legal manner, prescribed by law. If any person's rights 
are thus infringed upon, he can appeal to the courts and have his 
rights enforced. 

Let me call your attention to the fact that a constitution is a 
contract which society makes with the individual and with the min- 
ority, when society is calm, sober and intelligent and when reason 
and justice guides its action. This contract is made to protect the 
individual and the minority against the power of the majority when 
it is drunk with passion, frenzy and hate, and when in tliis state of 



88 THE XAKED TRUTH 

mind it might temporarily outrage the rights of the minority and 
of the individual. It is when society is in this latter condition, how- 
ever, that Colonel Eoosevelt proposes to submit for its consideration 
court decisions. What a monstrous proposition! Do you want to 
leave the determination of your religious liberty, the safety of your 
home, your property, your life, to a majority vote of any communi- 
ty ? Could not a few demagogues financed with rich men's money 
carry the majority vote and take your property, your home and your 
life, if you were a poor man and unable to defend yourself ? And 
right here I wish to call your attention to the fact that a constitution 
is necessary for the protection of the poor and weak. The rich can 
take care of themselves and so can the majority, therefore a consti- 
tution is formed especially for the purpose of protecting the weak, 
the defenseless and the poor. Lord Brougham expressed this 
powerfully and beautifully when he said: 

It was the boast of AugTJstus, — it formed part of the 
glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost, 
— that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But 
how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he 
ahali have it to say, that he found law dear and left it 
cheap; found it a sealed book, left it a living letter; 
found rt the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance 
of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and 
oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of 
innocence. 

I wish to invite your attention to another provision in the con- 
stitution, which relates to your individual rights. It is as follows : 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or 
otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment of indict- 
ment by a grand jury. Nor shall any person be subject for 
the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life and 
limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a 
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty 
or property, without due process of law; nor shall private 
property be taken for public use without just compensa- 
tion. 

This provision of the constitution protects every one of you 
against the legislatures of the land and against every majority in 
every community, and every state and against the congress as well, 
and if an attempt is made to deprive 3^ou of your life, liberty or 
property without "due process of law," you can appeal to the courts 



THE NAKED TRUTH 89 

for redress and the courts, in accordance with the mandate of the 
people, in their written constitution, will enforce your rights. But 
Eoosevelt proposes to turn your rights over to the whim of a mere 
majority, which in three days may become the minority. Can you 
think of anything more monstrous? Can you think of a more 
ideal state of political anarchy? 

Do you not see that this doctrine of the recall of judicial de- 
cisions leads not only to social suicide, but to political anarchy, and 
yet Eoosevelt calls it "social justice," Could anything be more un- 
just, more atrocious than to leave the security of your life and prop- 
erty subject to the raid of a majority moved by emotion and in- 
flamed by passion, and provide for you no refuge in which to seek 
safety and protection? Do you not see that this invokes the old 
barbaric rule that "Might Makes Right ?" 

I had supposed that we had advanced along the highway of 
progress and civilization, until we had finally reached that enlight- 
ened state where "Right Makes Might," but Colonel Roosevelt 
wants to carry us back to the barbaric days when the maxim was 
"Might Makes Right," back to the days of the inquisition, the 
tliumb-screw, the instruments of torture and the fagot's flame! 
Eoosevelt calls himself a Progressive. He is progressing more 
rapidly than the crab, and in the same direction ! 

I want to impress upon your minds the importance of having 
a government of law. I want to warn you against the danger of at- 
taching your faith to a personality. When we place our faith in 
principles which are eternal, we have, forever a resting place for our 
faith. When we give our allegiance to well settled governmental 
and political policies advocated by a political party we also have the 
same security because "while men may come and men may go, par- 
ties and policies go on forever." On the contrary when you put 
your faith in a single individual, when you blindly attach your 
faith to a personality and that person goes wrong, you go with him 
and the inevitable result is you soon awaken and find yourself 
stranded in a wilderness of disappointment. 

Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all the ages and 
the founder of political science, said : 

He who bids the law rule may be deemed to bid God 
and Reason alone rule, but he who bids man rule adds an 
element of the beast, for desire is a wild beast and passion 



90 THE NAKED TRUTH 

perverts the minds of rulers even when they are the best 
of men. Law is reason unaffected by desire. 
Let me repeat this last sentence. I want to impress it upon 
your minds. 

Law is reason unaffected by desire. 

Aristotle knew as we know that law, unlike man, never becomes 
perverted by passion and never becomes a wild beast, and that is the 
reason that we must have government by law, instead of govern- 
ment by men. He who advocates a policy, which aims to break 
down a government by a written constitution is an enemy to his 
country and the foe of law, order and religious liberty. 

Colonel Eoosevelt in advocating the recall of judicial decisions 
by a majority vote has become an evil genius, who with ruthless 
hands is trying to pull down the pillars of the Republic. The recall 
of judicial decisions by a majority vote is the most treasonable and 
dangerous doctrine ever proposed in this country since secession 
reared its ugly head in an effort to dismember the Union. The man 
who tries to undermine the people's confidence in our courts of 
justice is an enemy to his country. There is no place on earth, 
since the dawn of civilization, where the sacred Groddesses of liber- 
ty and justice have so often met in fond embrace as under the im- 
partial folds of the ermine of an independent and fearless judiciary. 
Speaking of the United States Supreme Court, Horace Binney said : 

What, sir, is the Supreme Court of the United States? 
It is the august representative of the wisdom and justice 
and conscience of this whole people, in the exposition of 
their constitution and laws. It is the peaceful and vener- 
able arbitrator between the citizens in all questions 
touching the extent and sway of constitutional power. 
It is the great moral substitute for force in the contro- 
versies between the people, the States and the Union. 

Remove the constitution, which is the crystalized conscience of 
the people and which is "Reason unaffected by desire," and then 
remove the courts and you have removed all the safeguards of so- 
ciety and all the protection to life, liberty and property and you 
have ushered in the reign of political chaos and anarchy, to be fol- 
lowed by the man on horseback and the "reign of terror." 

In his fevered imagination the Rough-Rider is already on the 
way; the Robespierres are Ready to Rise; the keen eye of the stud- 
ent of history can already detect the blood of revolution on the moon 



THE NAKED TRUTH 91 

and the only safety to this Republic lies in administering a crush- 
ing defeat on Tuesday next to Theodore Roosevelt who thirsts for 
the fame of a Caesar and a Napoleon in violation of his solemn 
pledge to the American people and in violation of the historic pre- 
cedents of his country. 

We are on the eve of a revolution created by the ceaseless agi- 
tation of office-seeking demagogues in spite of our unparalleled 
prosperity. This country is facing the greatest crisis since the Civil 
War. Our representative institutions are in danger. Treason is 
gnawing at the heart of our Constitution. 

In this crisis it is just as important that every patriot should 
respond to the defense of our representative institutions and fight 
for the preservation of our constitution as it was for them to rush 
to the defense of the Union when it was attacked by secession and 
treason. The danger of the present is as great as the danger of 
the past. It is not so apparent to the average citizen, but it is just 
as apparent to the student of history. It will require all the in- 
telligence, the patience and the wisdom of the American people 
together with the highest statesmanship of our country to solve the 
great problem which now confronts us. 

Government founded on law, order, stability and progress will 
be supported by every patriot, but government by hysteria, tumult 
and anarchy will be supported by every office-seeking demagogue. 
The demand of the hour is : 

"God give us men ; a time like this demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands ; 
Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who possess opinions and a will; 
Men who have honor, — men who will not lie; 
Men who can stand before a demagogue, 
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! 
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
In public duty and in private tliinking." 

Such a man, my friends, is President William Howard Taf t ! 



BETTS=ROOSEVELT 
LETTERS 

A Spirited and Illuminating Discussion of 

A PURE DEMOCRACY 
DIRECT NOMINATIONS 
THE INITIATIVE 

THE REFERENDUM and 
THE RECALL 

Together with a discussion of ConstitutioneJ limita- 
tions and the Court of Appeals' decision in 
the Workmen's Compensation Case 

In writing of the BETTS- ROOSEVELT LET- 
TERS, former minister to Germany, Hon. Andrew 
D. White, says: 

"7 can recall no general treatment of political 
questions in recent years which seems to me more 
likely to influence public opinion healthfully." 



Price postpaid, handsomely bound in cloth, $1.00, 
in paper, 50 cents 



PUBLISHED BY 

The Lyons Republican Co. 

41 William St., LYONS, N. Y. 



THE NAKED TRUTH 

The Mask Stripped from Demagogues and 
the Facts Revealed 

The Heart and Brain of Humbug Pierced 
by the Sword of Truth 

Vital Issues Before the Country Clearly 
Analyzed and Discussed 

Among the Subjects are : 

PRESENT DISCONTENT 
CHICAGO CONTESTS 
CANADIAN RECIPROCITY 
THE TARIFF 

THE FARMER AND THE TARIFF 
THEWORKINGMAN AND THE TARIFF 
ROOSEVELT AND THE TRUSTS 
ROOSEVELT AS A PROGRESSIVE 
TAFT AS A PROGRESSIVE 
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 
THE CONSTITUTION 

Speech delivered by CHARLES H. BETTS, editor of 
The Lyons Republican, at Clyde, N. Y., Nov. 2d, 1912. 

Price 25 Cents. Discount in Quantities 

PUBLISHED BY 

The Lyons Republican Co. 

LYONS, NEW YORK 



